Search the Dictionary

All-wise; claiming universal knowledge; as, pansophical pretenders. [R.] John Worthington.

A pretended or apparent omission; a figure by which a speaker artfully pretends to pass by what he really mentions; as, for example, if an orator should say, "I do not speak of my adversary's scandalous venality and rapacity, his brutal conduct, his treachery and malice." [Written also paralepsis, paralepsy, paralipsis…

One who puts on an air of learning; one who makes a vain display of learning; a pretender to superior knowledge. Addison. A scholar, yet surely no pedant, was he. Goldsmith.

One pretending to perfection; esp., one pretending to moral perfection; one who believes that persons may and do attain to moral perfection and sinlessness in this life. South.

A pretender to philosophy. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

A pretender in philosophy.

-- Wager policy, a policy that shows on the face of it that the contract it embodies is a pretended insurance, founded on an ideal risk, where the insured has no interest in anything insured.

A petty politician; a pretender in politics. Milton.

That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint. Let not the Trojans, with a feigned pretense Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince. Dryden.

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

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.

A figure by which, in pretending to pass over anything, a summary mention of it is made; as, "I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just." Called also paraleipsis.

To frame; to devise; to disguise or excuse; hence, to pretend; to declare falsely. [Obs.]

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.

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

Prophetic; oracular; pretending to foretell events.

To act the part of a quack, or pretender.

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.