Pretension

(redirected from pretensions)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal.
Related to pretensions: exhorter

Pretension

See also Hypocrisy.
Prey (See QUARRY.)
Pride (See BOASTFULNESS, EGOTISM, VANITY.)
Absolon
vain, officious parish clerk. [Br. Lit.: Canterbury Tales, “Miller’s Tale”]
Armado, Don Adriano
de his language inordinately disproportionate to his thought. [Br. Lit.: Love’s Labour’s Lost]
Chrononhotonthologos
king whose pomposity provoked a fatal brawl with his general. [Br. Lit.: Walsh Modern, 96]
Copper, Captain
pretends to great wealth; jewels are counterfeit. [Br. Lit.: Rule a Wife and Have a Wife, Walsh Modern, 105]
Coriolanus
stiff-necked Roman aristocrat; contemptuous of the common people. [Br. Lit.: Coriolanus]
Dodsworth, Fran
shallow industrialist’s wife ostentatiously gallivants about Europe. [Am. Lit.: Dodsworth]
Dogberry
ostentatiously and fastidiously examines prisoners. [Br. Lit.: Much Ado About Nothing]
euphuism
style overly rich with alliteration, figures, and Latinisms. [Br. Lit.: Euphues, Espy, 127]
Isle of Lanterns
inhabited by pretenders to knowledge. [Fr. Lit.: Pantagruel]
Jourdain, Monsieur
parvenu grandiosely affects gentleman’s mien. [Fr. Lit.: The Bourgeois Gentilhomme]
Madelon and Cathos
their suitors had to be flamboyant. [Fr. Lit.: Les Precieuses Ridicules]
Melody, Cornelius
self-deluded tavern-keeper boasts about his upper-class past to maintain a show of importance. [Am. Drama: Eugene O’Neill A Touch of the Poet in Benét, 737]
morning glory
symbol of affectation; flower of September. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 175; Kunz, 330]
Parolles
boastful villain of affected sentiment and knowledge. [Br. Lit.: All’s Well That Ends Well]
Pendennis
enters university “posing as moneyed aristocrat.” [Br. Lit.: Pendennis]
Verdurin, M. & Mme.
nouveau-riche couple strive for social eminence. [Fr. Lit.: Proust Remembrance of Things Past]
willow herb
indicates affectation. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 178]
Yvetot, King
of affects grandeur; kingdom is but a village. [Fr. Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 1173]
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
They already began to consider themselves on a par with the M'Tavishes, the M'Gillivrays, the Frobishers, and the other magnates of the Northwest, whom they had been accustomed to look up to as the great ones of the earth; and they were a little disposed, perhaps, to wear their suddenly-acquired honors with some air of pretension.
View in context
So with Mesmerism, Swedenborgism, Fourierism, and the Millennial Church; they are poor pretensions enough, but good criticism on the science, philosophy, and preaching of the day.
View in context
In fact, if not exactly a believer in the doctrine of the efficiency of the extra good works of saints, he really seemed somehow or other to fancy that his wife had piety and benevolence enough for two--to indulge a shadowy expectation of getting into heaven through her superabundance of qualities to which he made no particular pretension.
View in context
There was even an ease and cheerfulness about her air and manner that I made no pretension to; but there was a depth of malice in her too expressive eye that plainly told me I was not forgiven; for, though she no longer hoped to win me to herself, she still hated her rival, and evidently delighted to wreak her spite on me.
View in context
The hotel of the provincial town where Nikolay Levin was lying ill was one of those provincial hotels which are constructed on the newest model of modern improvements, with the best intentions of cleanliness, comfort, and even elegance, but owing to the public that patronizes them, are with astounding rapidity transformed into filthy taverns with a pretension of modern improvement that only makes them worse than the old-fashioned, honestly filthy hotels.
View in context
Tucker was broad and six feet high He was just a Marsh Lane guy No pretensions, airs or graces He could even fasten his own shoelaces When you met Tucker, you became his friend And he would back you, right 'til the end His stories were bad, his jokes the worst But he'd make you laugh 'Til you thought you'd burst When you worked with Tucker, time would Fly so fast He would always reminisce About the past He's passed on now and no-one knows why Tucker was just a Marsh Lane guy by Matt Smith, Bootle (another Marsh Lane guy)
MARSH LANE GUY; Your Poem
She continues to fool and deceive the world by forming a series of lies and pretensions supported by false documents in order to draw world attention and then win its sympathy.
Truth distorted
Foyle MP Mark Durkan said their pretensions to legitimacy would impress nobody.
TERRORISTS IN WARNING; Threat to police and Queen
Two parliamentary factions lay claims for speaker post, another two parliamentary factions have pretensions for prime minister's post, said Dosaly Esenaliev on December 11 in his comments concerning progress of coalition talks.
Respublika: 2 factions claim for speaker post, another 2 - for prime minister post
It's not a great film, nor has it any pretensions in that direction, but it is also not a watered down Disney-like sentimental tale.
Tried and tested
In fact, his pretensions seem to never end: he puts his name on everything from buildings and business suits to vodka and cologne.
Top Ten Most Pretentious Public Figures:
Award-winning essay writer and editor emeritus of "Harper's Magazine" Lewis Lapham presents Pretensions to Empire: Notes on the Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration, a stinging indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration from its first days in Washington up to the present.
Pretensions to Empire

Encyclopedia browser ?
Full browser ?