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scoundrel; 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.

To affect reformation; to pretend to correctness. [R.]

terel. (Zoöl.) See Dotterel, and Illust. of Pressiroster. -- Ring dropper, a sharper who pretends to have found a ring (dropped by himself), and tries to induce another to buy it as valuable, it being worthless. -- Ring fence. See under Fence. -- Ring finger, the third finger of the left hand, or the next the little…

scrupulous austerity; sanctity; especially, outward or artificial saintliness; assumed or pretended holiness; hypocritical devoutness. Her pretense is a pilgrimage; . . . which holy undertaking with most austere sanctimony she accomplished. Shak.

One who knows many things superficially; a pretender to science; a smatterer. These passages in that book were enough to humble the presumption of our modern sciolists, if their pride were not as great as their ignorance. Sir W. Temple. A master were lauded and scolists shent. R. Browning.

To raise, equip, and send forth; to furnish. [R.] The Venetians pretend they could set out, in case of great necessity, thirty men-of-war. Addison.

False; counterfeit; pretended; feigned; unreal; as, a sham fight. They scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians. Jowett (Thucyd)

One who pretends to be what he is not; one who, or that which, simulates or counterfeits something; a pretender. [Obs.] Shak. Christ calleth the Pharisees hypocrites, that is to say, simulars, and painted sepulchers. Tyndale.

Feigned; pretended. Bale.

To doubt; to pretend to doubt of everything. [R.] To skepticize, where no one else will . . . hesitate. Shaftesbury.

Calling himself; self-styled; pretended; would-be.

Like a sot; doltish; very foolish; drunken. How ignorant are sottish pretenders to astrology! Swift.

The act of an incumbent in taking the fruits of his benefice without right, but under a pretended title. Blackstone.

Not proceeding from the true source, or from the source pretended; not genuine; false; adulterate.

without control over the organs of speech. In the midst of caresses, and without the last pretend incitement, to sputter out the basest accusations. Swift.

A real or pretended indifference to pleasure or pain; insensibility; impassiveness.

ict an accused person. There can be no other meaning in this expression, however some may pretend to strain it. Swift.

One who strokes; also, one who pretends to cure by stroking. Cures worked by Greatrix the stroker. Bp. Warburton.

To hold the same faith; to agree. [R.] The believers in pretended miracles have always previously symbolized with the performers of them. G. S. Faber.