pretend
/prɪˈtɛnd
/verb
1 [with clause or infinitive] Behave so as to make it appear that something is the case when in fact it is not: I closed my eyes and pretended I was asleep she turned the pages and pretended to read...
- They could pretend that they in fact had hands toughened by manual labor in the somewhat mythical Australian outback.
- The good thing about a BlackBerry is you can read a message and pretend that you haven't seen it.
- They could in fact merely be pretending not to be Masons.
Synonyms
make as if, profess, affect;
dissimulate, dissemble, pose, posture, put it on, put on a false front, go through the motions, sham, fake it
informal kid
1.1Engage in an imaginative game or fantasy: children pretending to be grown-ups...
- This fantasy allows us to pretend that where we are does not matter, and that what we do daily is a minor narrative that does not count.
- Francis loses both daughter and wife and constructs a fantasy life to pretend that Lisa is somehow still alive.
- Back then I used to play games and pretend I was a secret agent and such.
Synonyms
put on an act, make believe, play at, act, play-act, pass oneself off as, bluff, impersonate
1.2 [with object] Give the appearance of feeling or possessing (an emotion or quality); simulate: she pretended a greater surprise than she felt...
- Lodovico, with Brabanzio's brother Graziano, hears the wounded men: Iago, feigning to help, stabs Roderigo, then pretends horror on finding him dead.
- Each of us (we're men here) pretends appreciation for the way she slips from point to point.
- Even pretended disinterest can destroy thought, or pretended interest can give room for ideas to coalesce.
Synonyms
feign, sham, fake, simulate, put on, counterfeit, affect
fake, faked, affected, assumed, professed, purported, spurious, ostensible, quasi-, contrived, in name only;
insincere, hypocritical, mock, imitation, simulated, so-called, make-believe, pseudo, sham, false, bogus;
counterfeit, fraudulent, forged
informal pretend, phoney
2 [no object] (pretend to) Lay claim to (a quality or title): he cannot pretend to sophistication...
- There is a self-styled anti-globalisation movement that pretends to the contrary.
- But it is an impostor, a sort of Toad Hall that pretends to an amplitude and height it hasn't got.
adjective [attributive] informal
Not really what it is represented as being; imaginary: the children poured out pretend tea for the dolls...
- In the home center, children prepare a pretend picnic for an imaginary vacation.
- And when you say towing mannequins, is that mannequin in the sense of, say a store dummy, basically a pretend human being?
- It was a boring time, as Dominic had to eat pretend chocolate chip cookies, and drink tea.
Synonyms
imaginary, imagined, pretended, make-believe, made-up, fantasy, fantasized, fancied, dream, dreamed-up, unreal, fanciful, invented, fictitious, fictive, mythical, feigned, fake, mock, imitative, sham, simulated, artificial, ersatz, dummy, false, faux, spurious, bogus, counterfeit, fraudulent, forged, pseudo
informal phoney
South African informal play-play
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin praetendere 'stretch forth, claim', from prae 'before' + tendere 'stretch'. The adjective dates from the early 20th century.
The basic idea behind pretend is that you claim to be something that you are not. It comes from Latin praetendere ‘to claim, put forward’, from prae ‘before’ and tendere ‘stretch, hold out’.