PRETEND in a Sentence

Learn PRETEND 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.

242 example sentences for PRETEND, such as:

1. I pretend my legs are graceful.
2. I don't pretend that Will has no faults.
3. He pretended sleep when his mother called him.
4. Stop pretending that the problem doesn't exist.
5. We can't go on pretending that everything is OK.

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 Meanings and Examples of PRETEND
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
pretend
 v.  act so as to make it appear that something is the case when in fact it is not
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  He knew she hadn't loved Charlie and he wouldn't let her pretend to the nice polite sentiments that she should express.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
2  Actually she was neither, but she could pretend to be.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIII
3  Having to pretend that her heart was in the grave when it wasn't.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIII
4  He felt there was something unbecoming about a woman understanding fractions and business matters and he believed that, should a woman be so unfortunate as to have such unladylike comprehension, she should pretend not to.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVI
5  And it would be just as much fun, even if it was so babyish, to have tea by herself and pretend that she was entertaining clever men.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER X
6  Especially all these tenant farmers that pretend they have so much trouble getting seed and machinery.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XI
7  I pretend my legs are graceful.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
8  I could just drop in for a second and then pretend I had a country call and beat it.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXV
9  I don't pretend that Will has no faults.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXV
10  You always pretend to be so sophisticated and all, but you're a baby.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXI
11  There are only two books in being which at all pretend to put the living sperm whale before you, and at the same time, in the remotest degree succeed in the attempt.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
12  Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the English and the right whale of the Americans.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 32. Cetology.
13  They know the men of the section of the country who refuse this are not so desirous of punishing rapists as they pretend.
Southern Horrors By Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Context  Highlight   In III
14  The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 9
15  These varlets pretend to be bent chiefly on their sun-down meal, but the moment it is dark they will be on our trail, as true as hounds on the scent.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 20
Example Sentence: (32 in 3 pages)
16  The candidate tried to run away from controversial issues by pretending to be ill.
17  Stop pretending that the problem doesn't exist.
18  She deceived me by pretending to be a famous movie star.
19  We can't go on pretending that everything is OK.
20  With his musical talent, he would be much more than some chump pretending to play guitar and sing.
21  He pretended profundity by eye - beamings at people.
22  He pretended not to know her but in fact they were in league together.
23  There is more danger from a pretended friend than from an enemy.
24  The police divested the pretended officer of his stolen uniform.
25  He pretended sleep when his mother called him.
26  He has pretended to too many women and I hate this sort of man.
27  He pretended that resigning was part of his long - term career strategy.
28  She says she only pretended to kidnap the children and never wanted to get money from them.
29  Though he pretended their encounter was fortuitous, he'd actually been hanging around her usual haunts for the past two weeks, hoping she'd turn up.
30  They show a pretended interest in the proceedings, we know it isn't true from beginning.