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The act of pretending; pretense. [Obs.] Daniel.

The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law. It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty. Glanvill.

The character, right, or claim of a pretender. Swift.

As by right or title; arrogantly; presumptuously. Collier.

The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. Spenser. Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke. I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn.

Pretended; feigned. [Obs.] -- Pre*tens"ed*ly, adv. [Obs.]

Abounding in pretenses.

Not having or making pretenses.

The act of pretending, or laying claim; the act of asserting right or title. The arrogant pretensions of Glengarry contributed to protract the discussion. Macaulay.

Fitted for trial beforehand; experimental. [R.] Sir H. Wotton.

Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming. -- Pre*ten"tious*ly, adv. -- Pre*ten"tious*ness, n.

Same as Preteritness.

Seclusion from company or society; retirement; privacy; secrecy. Bacon.

The quality of being profligate; an abandoned course of life; profligacy.

The quality or state of being proportionate. Sir M. Hale.

To hold out; to stretch forth. [Obs.] With his protended lance he makes defence. Dryden .

Extension.[Obs.] " By due degrees and long protense." Spenser.

A drawing out; extension. [R.] Sir W. Hamilton.

Drawn out; extended. [R.] Time is a protensive quantity. Sir W. Hamilton.

Prussian; -- applied to certain astronomical tables published in the sixteenth century, founded on the principles of Copernicus, a Prussian.