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fer; to exhibit; to propose; to put forward. "The propositions which books hold forth and pretend to teach." Locke. -- To held in, to restrain; to curd. -- To hold in hand, to toy with; to keep in expectation; to have in one's power. [Obs.] O, fie! to receive favors, return falsehoods, And hold a lady in hand. Beaw.…

Plain; unpretending; rude in appearance; unpolished; as, a homely garment; a homely house; homely fare; homely manners. Now Strephon daily entertains His Chloe in the homeliest strains. Pope.

Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a humble cottage. THy humble nest built on the ground. Cowley.

puts on a fair outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety. The hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job viii. 13. I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart. Shak.

An image or representation; a portrait or pretended portrait. Netherlands whose names and icons are published. Hakewill.

A stupid, ignorant person; a vain pretender to knowledge; a dunce. An ignoramus in place and power. South.

One who enlightened; esp., a pretender to extraordinary light and knowledge.

s; a person who assumes a character or title not his own, for the purpose of deception; a pretender. "The fraudulent impostor foul." Milton.

were told to expect, upon the fall of Walpole, a large and lucrative indemnity for their pretended wrongs. Ld. Mahon.

To pretend; to counterfeit; to simulate. [Obs.] Intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio. Shak.

this man's kidney. L'Estrange. Your poets, spendthrifts, and other fools of that kidney, pretend, forsooth, to crack their jokes on prudence. Burns.

Extent; size; amplitude; scope. I pretend not to treat of them in their full latitude. Locke.

A comprehensive name for all of the pretended arts which claim to produce effects by the assistance of supernatural beings, or departed spirits, or by a mastery of secret forces in nature attained by a study of occult science, including enchantment, conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, incantation, etc. An app…

Belief in the coming of the Mahdi; fanatical devotion to the cause of the Mahdi or a pretender to that title. -- Mah"dist (#), n.

To alienate; to transfer; to make over. [Obs.] Waller. -- To make believe, to pretend; to feign; to simulate. -- To make bold, to take the liberty; to venture. -- To make the cards (Card Playing), to shuffle the pack. -- To make choice of, to take by way of preference; to choose. -- To make danger, to make experim…

illness, in order to avoid doing his duty; hence, in general, one who shirks his duty by pretending illness or inability.

miracles. [Obs.] When said was all this miracle. Chaucer. Miracle monger, an impostor who pretends to work miracles. -- Miracle play, one of the old dramatic entertainments founded on legends of saints and martyrs or (see 2d Mystery, 2) on events related in the Bible.

other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infalliable remedies; a quack doctor. Such is the weakness and easy credulity of men, that a mountebank ... is preferred before an able physician. Whitlock.

The art of revealing future events by means of a pretended communication with the dead; the black art; hence, magic in general; conjuration; enchantment. See Black art. This palace standeth in the air, By necromancy placèd there. Drayton.

To offer as the reason of anything; to pretend. [Obs.] Dryden