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To foretell; to predict; to prognosticate. He doth not prophesy good concerning me. 1 Kings xxii. 8. Then I perceive that will be verified Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy. Shak.

One who prophesies, or foretells events; a predicter; a foreteller.

Containing, or pertaining to, prophecy; foretelling events; as, prophetic writings; prophetic dreams; -- used with of before the thing foretold. And fears are oft prophetic of the event. Dryden.

The quality or state of being prophetical; power or capacity to foretell.

A combining form or prefix signifying false, counterfeit, pretended, spurious; as, pseudo-apostle, a false apostle; pseudo- clergy, false or spurious clergy; pseudo-episcopacy, pseudo-form, pseudo-martyr, pseudo-philosopher. Also used adjectively.

A superficial or narrow pretender to philosophy; a sham philosopher.

ok or magazine. For love of you, not hate unto my friend, Hath made me publisher of this pretense. Shak.

That which is excreted; excretion. [Obs.]

One who pretends to divine by fire. Sir T. Herbert.

Prophetic; oracular; pretending to foretell events.

To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast. " To quack of universal cures." Hudibras.

The acts, arts, or boastful pretensions of a quack; false pretensions to any art; empiricism. Carlyle.

or capable of increase and decrease, multiplication and division; greatness; and more concretely, that which answers the question "How much"; measure in regard to bulk or amount; determinate or comparative dimensions; measure; amount; bulk; extent; size. Hence, in specific uses:

One who is curious to know everything that passes; one who knows, or pretends to know, all that is going on. "The idle stories of quidnuncs." Motley.

To puzzle; to banter; to chaff or mock with pretended seriousness of discourse; to make sport of, as by obscure questions. He quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room. Thackeray.

coundrel; a trickster. For I have sense to serve my turn in store, And he's a rascal who pretends to more. Dryden.

dost ravish from my chin Will quicken, and accuse thee. Shak. This hand shall ravish thy pretended right. Dryden.

That which is real; an actual existence; that which is not imagination, fiction, or pretense; that which has objective existence, and is not merely an idea. And to realities yield all her shows. Milton. My neck may be an idea to you, but it is reality to me. Beattie.

make real; to convert from the imaginary or fictitious into the actual; to bring into concrete existence; to accomplish; as, to realize a scheme or project. We realize what Archimedes had only in hypothesis, weighting a single grain against the globe of earth. Glanvill.

To withdraw a claim or pretension; to desist; to relinquish what had been proposed or asserted; as, to recede from a demand or proposition.