pretender
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/
rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)
Forms: form: pretenders
Etymology: From pretend + -er.
Senses: examples: text: Pretensor, a pretender, he that purposeth.
ref: 1591, Percivall, Sp. Dict.
text: Pretendente, a pretendent, a pretender, an intender, a meaner.
ref: 1598, Florio
glosses: One who intends or purposes.
examples: text: By how straight a Rule […] must that Pretender carry himselfe, who is to saile thorow the sea of this world, hoping for a fortune from another mans hand?
ref: 1622, Mabbe, Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf 1.214
text: […]; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemies, rather than the sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in court; […]
ref: a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon XXX”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 8:
text: Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize.
ref: 1646, H. Lawrence, Comm. Angells 116
text: The issue of the eldest son excludes all other pretenders, as the son himself (if living) would have done.
ref: 1766, William Blackstone, chapter 14, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 218:
text: A candidate for a school at Brewood in Staffordshire; to which, I think, there are seventeen pretenders.
ref: 1780 May 25th, Johnson, Let. to Mrs. Thrale
text: I would sooner gain five thousand pounds by restoring you to your rights, than fifty thousand in establishing any of these pretenders in their base assumptions.
ref: 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VII, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 238:
glosses: One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
examples: text: He, of the two pretenders, that best loves me.
ref: 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:
text: An Earles daughter, […] whose mother not allowing him to come as a pretender shee made apointmentt with him and mett him att her cousin’s howse.
ref: ante 1699, Lady Halkett, Autobiog. 17, (Camden)
text: It is not my design to dispose of Irene to the most noble, but most wealthy of the Pretenders to her Love.
ref: 1728 (1732), Eliza Heywood, Mme. de Gomez’s Belle A. 2.235
glosses: One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
One who aspires to the hand of a woman in marriage; a suitor, a wooer.
examples: text: If inteſtine Broils allarm the Hive, / (For two Pretenders oft for Empire ſtrive)
ref: 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 125:
text: I Think it necessary to acquaint you, that I have received Advices this Morning from Ostend, that the French Fleet sailed from Dunkirk, Tuesday at three in the Morning, Northward, with the Pretender on board; as also, that Sir George Byng had notice of it the same Day at ten: And he being very much superior to the Enemy both in Number and Strength, I make no question, but, by God’s Blessing, he will soon be able to give a good Account of them.
ref: 1708 March 11th, Anne Regina, The Queen’s Speech to both Houses, in The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons, volume IV: 1706–1713, London: Chandler (1742), § iv: “First Parliament of Great Britain”, page 92
text: She [Q. Anne] also fixed a new Designation on the Pretended Prince of Wales, and called him the Pretender; he was so called in a new Set of Addresses […] upon this occasion […] made to the Queen.
ref: c. 1715, Burnet, Own Time 2.503
text: the provost’s enemies at the council-table of the burgh used to observe that he uttered there many a bold harangue against the Pretender, and in favour of King George and government, of which he dared not have pronounced a syllable in his own bedchamber
ref: 1824 June, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 238:
text: The pretender […] had friends in the tory government more sincere probably and zealous than [the earl of] Oxford.
ref: 1827 (1876), Hallam, Const. Hist. 3.16.223
text: Wullenweber […] turned to the nearest protestant pretender, Duke Christian, and offered him his assistance to obtain the crown.
ref: 1845, S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref. 3.633
text: Every province […] had its own Augustus. All these pretenders could not be rightful Emperors.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 442:
glosses: One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; originally in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
examples: text: A pretender / To the art, I truely honor, and ſubſcribe / To your maieſties opinion.
ref: 1631 (first performance), Philip Massinger, The Emperour of the East. A Tragæ-comœdie. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, published 1632, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:
text: Make it a feast, and perfit your great injustice / In the surrendringe up this false pretender / To the correction of the law, […]
ref: 1631 May 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Philip Massinger, Believe as You List: A Tragedy (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. […]; XXVII), London: […] [F]or the Percy Society, by Richards, […], published 1849, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:
text: But this pretence of Covenant with God, is so evident a lye, even in the pretenders own consciences, that it is not onely an act of an unjust, but also a vile, and unmanly disposition.
ref: 1651, Thomas Hobbes, chapter 18, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 89:
text: […]But, I answer; that it is not so easy an Acquirement as a few ignorant Pretenders may imagine.
ref: 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page xlv:
text: That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin, […]”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], published 1785, →OCLC, page 492:
text: I presume that there is no gentleman in Europe that has not heard of the house of Barry of Barryogue, of the kingdom of Ireland, than which a more famous name is not to be found in Gwillim or D’Hozier; and though, as a man of the world, I have learned to despise heartily the claims of some pretenders to high birth who have no more genealogy than the lacquey who cleans my boots, […]
ref: 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion.”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC, page 3:
text: Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural powers.
ref: 1848 (1850), Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art 122
text: Neither will he be able to distinguish the pretender in medicine from the true physician, nor between any other true and false professor of knowledge.
ref: 1870, Benjamin Jowett, Charmides, or Temperance, translation of original by Plato:
glosses: One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, especially without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
synonyms: word: dissembler
word: flip-flopper
word: hypocrite
word: phony
word: bamboozler
word: bouncer
word: bullshitter
word: cheat
word: cheater
word: cogger
word: cony-catcher
word: crammer
word: deceiver
word: deceptor
word: fabricator
word: fabulist
word: falser
word: gabber
word: grifter
word: guiler
word: liar
word: losenger
word: mocker
word: pseudologist
word: rook
word: Scandaroon
word: shammer
word: Spanish athlete
word: swindler
word: swike
word: treacher
word: trickster
word: trucker
word: wernard
glosses: A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold.
Derived terms: Old Pretender
Pretenderism
pretendership
public pretender
Young Pretender