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pretend
has definitions from the field of theater
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[ verb ] make believe with the intent to deceive
Examples "He feigned that he was ill" "He shammed a headache" Used in print (Howard Nemerov, "Themes and Methods: The Early...)At_the_same_time the multiple transvestitism involved - the fat man as girl and as baby , as coquette pretending to be a baby - touches for a moment horrifyingly upon the secret sources of a life like Jacoby 's , upon the sinister dreams which form the sources of any human life . (Guy Bolton, The Olympians....)No , she would not pretend modesty , but neither must she be crudely bold . (John Cheever, "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow,"...)One might pretend never to have seen one before , or , to more purpose , that there would never be another like it . (Richard Ferber, Bitter Valley....)They were n't sleeping , of_course , but they thought they were doing him a favor by pretending . (John Hazard Wildman, "Take It Off," The Arizona...)He read Henry_James and used_to pretend profundity through eye-beamings at people . Related terms misrepresent mouth play_possum waffle take_a_dive make hypocrite imposter pretense pretense malingerer |
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[ verb ] behave unnaturally or affectedly
Examples "She's just acting" Used in print (Louis Zara, Dark Rider....)Ludie inquired every evening , pretending that he did not care . (Guy Endore, Voltaire! Voltaire!...)The furor was such_that people who could not possibly have squirmed their way into the rehearsals were pretending that they were intimate with the whole affair and that it would be sensational . Now times have changed , and I must pretend that hair does n't grow on my face . (Octavia Waldo, A Cup of the Sun....)The clapping they made on the concrete interrupted him in the ecstatic pleasure he knew , so that he quickly released his hold on the goat and pretended to be examining its haunches for ticks . |
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[ noun ] the enactment of a pretense
Synonyms Examples "it was just pretend" |
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[ verb ] (theater) represent fictitiously, as in a play, or pretend to be or act like
Synonyms Examples "She makes like an actress" Related terms |
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[ adjective ] imagined as in a play
Synonyms Examples "the make-believe world of theater" "play money" "dangling their legs in the water to catch pretend fish" Related terms |
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