false pretension

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

There was always, and there will be always, a certain amount of false pretension in life which you may, if you like, call acting.

From Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General by Lever, Charles James

Dissimulā′tion, the act of dissembling: a hiding under a false appearance: false pretension: hypocrisy; Dissimulā′tor.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

The detection, it is true, is not so easy, because the objects are not so nigh at hand to compare, and therefore there is more room both for false pretension and for self-deceit.

From Table Talk Essays on Men and Manners by Hazlitt, William

"A fault in manner," he says, "is laughable; a false pretension is ridiculous, a situation which exposes vice to detestation is comic, a bon mot is pleasant."

From History of English Humour, Vol. 2 by L'Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingan

She said this, therefore, only to tease her aunt by the false pretension that the secret had been confided to her.

From History of King Charles the Second of England by Abbott, Jacob