Noun

(en noun)

(label) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.

* 1819 , Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Coote, The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second , Volume 3, p.115,

*:Great armaments were therefore put on foot in Moravia and Bohemia, while the elector of Saxony, under a pretence of military parade, drew together about sixteen thousand men, which were posted in a strong situation at Pima.

*

*:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.

*1995 , Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children?s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development , p.281,

*:In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children?s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence' and asked them to differentiate between belief and ' pretence .

*2005 , (Plato), Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist , .

*:That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry.

(label) Intention; design.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:A very pretence and purpose of unkindness.

Noun

(en noun)

A long outer garment worn over the shoulders covering the back; a cape, often with a hood.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=5 citation , passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}

A blanket-like covering, often metaphorical.

(figurative)  That which conceals; a disguise or pretext.

* South

No man is esteemed any ways considerable for policy who wears religion otherwise than as a cloak .

(Internet)  A text replacement for an IRC user's hostname or IP address, making the user less identifiable.