Verb

(en verb)

To claim, allege, especially when falsely or as a form of deliberate deception.

* 1749 , (Henry Fielding), Tom Jones , XVIII.23:

*:"After what past at Upton, so soon to engage in a new amour with another woman, while I fancied, and you pretended , your heart was bleeding for me!"

*{{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.’}}

* 2009 , "Vanity publishing", The Economist , 13 Apr 2009:

I have nothing but contempt for people who hire ghost-writers. But at least most faux authors have the decency to pretend that they are sweating blood over "their" book.

To feign, affect (a state, quality, etc.).

* Milton

This let him know, / Lest, willfully transgressing, he pretend / Surprisal.

* 2007 , The Guardian , 29 Oct 2007:

Gap and other clothes manufacturers should stop using small subcontractors because they are difficult to control. Instead, they should open up their own fully-owned production facilities so that they cannot pretend ignorance when abuses are committed.

To lay claim (to) (an ability, status, advantage, etc.). (originally used without to )

* Dryden

Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend .

* 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.25:

People observed the diversity of schools and the acerbity of their disputes, and decided that all alike were pretending to knowledge which was in fact unattainable.

To make oneself appear (to) do or be doing something; to engage in make-believe.

* 1814 , (Jane Austen), Mansfield Park :

*:"The truth is, Ma'am," said Mrs. Grant, pretending to whisper across the table to Mrs. Norris, "that Dr. Grant hardly knows what the natural taste of our apricot is [...]."

* 2003 , Duncan Campbell, The Guardian , 23 Jan 2003:

Luster claimed that the women had consented to sex and were only pretending to be asleep.

(obsolete) To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden.

* Milton

Lest that too heavenly form, pretended / To hellish falsehood, snare them.

(obsolete) To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt.

* Shakespeare

Such as shall pretend / Malicious practices against his state.

(obsolete) To hold before one; to extend.

*1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.11:

*:Pastorella […] Was by the Captaine all this while defended, / Who, minding more her safety then himselfe, / His target alwayes over her pretended […].

Verb

(en verb)

To mimic, to simulate.

* Shakespeare

To see the life as lively mocked' as ever / Still sleep ' mocked death.

* Shakespeare

Mocking marriage with a dame of France.

To make fun of by mimicking, to taunt.

* Bible, 1 Kings xviii. 27

Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud.

* Gray

Let not ambition mock their useful toil.

To tantalise, and disappoint (the hopes of).

* Bible, Judges xvi. 13

Thou hast mocked me, and told me lies.

* 1597 , William Shakespeare, Henry IV , Part II, Act V, Scene III:

And with his spirit sadly I survive, / to mock the expectations of the world; / to frustrate prophecies, and to raze out / rotten opinion

* 1603 , William Shakespeare, Othello , Act III, Scene III:

"It is the greene-ey'd Monster, which doth mocke / The meate it feeds on."

* 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost :

Why do I overlive? / Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out / to deathless pain?

* Milton

He will not / Mock us with his blest sight, then snatch him hence.

* 1765 , Benjamin Heath, A revisal of Shakespear's text , page 563 (a commentary on the "mocke the meate" line from Othello):

‘Mock’ certainly never signifies to loath. Its common signification is, to disappoint.

* 1812 , The Critical Review or, Annals of Literature , page 190:

The French revolution indeed is a prodigy which has mocked the expectations both of its friends and its foes. It has cruelly disappointed the fondest hopes of the first, nor has it observed that course which the last thought that it would have pursued.