Pronunciations (2)
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/ˈpɹiːtɛkst/
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ˈpɹiːtɛkst
Noun
A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.
- Examples
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The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.
[T]hey would ſay [...] that I had quarrell'd / My brother purpoſely, thereby to finde / An apt pretext, to baniſh them my houſe.
More examples (4)
"After all," said the Chevalier, "these portraits—Madame de I'Hôpital's fortune-telling—the pleasure we take in a lover or a physician—may all be referred to the same cause,—we do so enjoy talking about ourselves; and yet we feel some sort of excuse necessary. It must be admitted, that we are ready in pretexts."
On every kind of pretext she would run away from work [...]
The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection.
When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.
Verb
To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.
- Examples
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The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.
More examples (2)
[…] the something in the air of these establishments; the vibration of the vast, strange life of the town; the influence of the types, the performers, concocting their messages; the little prompt Paris women arranging, pretexting goodness knew what, driving the dreadful needle-pointed public pen at the dreadful sand-strewn public table[…]
Not all the surviving veteran chiefs would actually fight. Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.
Noun
something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
an artful or simulated semblance
- Examples
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under the guise of friendship he betrayed them