PRETENCE in a Sentence

Learn PRETENCE from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

38 example sentences for PRETENCE, such as:

1. I will make no such pretence to you.
2. But among the common people there was no pretence.
3. She made absolutely no pretence of being interested.
4. I make no pretence to being an expert on the subject.
5. Welland made a pretence of writing a note in his pad.

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 Meanings and Examples of PRETENCE
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
pretence
 n.  act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext..
Classic Sentence: (32 in 3 pages)
1  He had previously communicated his plan to the former, who aided the deceit by quitting his house, under the pretence of a journey and concealed himself, with his daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 14
2  I made a foolish pretence of not at first recognizing it, and then told her.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In Chapter XXXIII
3  It was a very lame pretence on both sides; the lamer, because we both went into the coffee-room, where he had just finished his breakfast, and where I ordered mine.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In Chapter XLIII
4  Although it required an effort to leave Miss Mills, I fell rather willingly into my aunt's pretence, as a means of enabling me to pass a few tranquil hours with Agnes.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 39. WICKFIELD AND HEEP
5  He received me in his usual fawning way, and pretended not to have heard of my arrival from Mr. Micawber; a pretence I took the liberty of disbelieving.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 39. WICKFIELD AND HEEP
6  I turned him hastily on some pretence, and held him in conversation until it was gone.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 40. THE WANDERER
7  I occasionally made a pretence of wanting a page or two of manuscript copied.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 44. OUR HOUSEKEEPING
8  He drew his sleeve across his face, without any pretence of concealing why; and then cleared his voice.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 51. THE BEGINNING OF A LONGER JOURNEY
9  Mr. Micawber was so very much struck by this happy rounding off with a quotation, that he indulged himself, and us, with a second reading of the sentence, under pretence of having lost his place.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 52. I ASSIST AT AN EXPLOSION
10  I will make no such pretence to you.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER II
11  I never made a pretence to him or you that I loved him.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER X
12  Louisa understood the loving pretence, and her heart smote her.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER I
13  Moreover, we are knights and soldiers as well as men of religion, and shame it were to us upon any pretence, to refuse proffered combat.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVIII
14  But among the common people there was no pretence.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 10
15  The conclusion was scarcely intelligible from increasing fright, for she found that Mr. Crawford, under pretence of receiving the note, was coming towards her.
Mansfield Park By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXI
Example Sentence:
1  She made absolutely no pretence of being interested.
2  If you want a pretence to whip a dog, say that he ate the frying-pam.
3  I make no pretence to being an expert on the subject.
4  Welland made a pretence of writing a note in his pad.
5  The theory made the greatest pretence of having a scientific foundation.
6  And so, under pretence of softening the previous outrage, of stroking and soothing me into placidity, you stick a sly penknife under my ear!