| 释义 |
pretender|prɪˈtɛndə(r)|
[f. pretend v. + -er1.]
One who pretends.
†1. One who intends or purposes. Obs. rare.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Pretensor, a pretender, he that purposeth. 1598[see pretendant n. 1].
2. 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.
1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 214 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? a1631Donne Serm. xxxii. (1640) 315 The sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in Court. 1646H. Lawrence Comm. Angells 116 Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize. 1766Blackstone Comm. II. xiv. 218 The issue of the eldest son excludes all other pretenders, as the son himself (if living) would have done. 1780Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 25 May, A candidate for a school at Brewood in Staffordshire; to which, I think, there are seventeen pretenders. 1845Disraeli Sybil iv. vii, 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.
†b. One who aspires to the hand of a woman in marriage; a suitor, a wooer. Obs.
1612Two Noble K. v. i, He, of the two pretenders, that best loves me. a1699A. Halkett Autobiog. (Camden) 17 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. 1728Eliza Heywood Mme. de Gomez's Belle A. (1732) II. 235 It is not my design to dispose of Irene to the most noble, but most wealthy of the Pretenders to her Love.
c. A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; orig. in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
the Old Pretender and the Young Pretender (Eng. Hist.): the designation of the son and grandson of James II of England, who successively asserted their claim to the British throne against the house of Hanover.
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 93 If intestine Broils allarm the Hive, (For two Pretenders oft for Empire strive). 1708Q. Anne Sp. Ho. Parl. 11 Mar. in Chandler Hist. Ho. Comm. (1742) IV. 92 The French fleet sailed from Dunkirk..with the Pretender on board. a1715Burnet Own Time (1734) II. 503 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. 1745P. C. Webb (title) Remarks on the Pretender's Son's Second Declaration. 1747(title) Genuine Memoirs of John Murray..Late Secretary to the Young Pretender. 1824Scott Redgauntlet ch. xvi. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) III. xvi. 223 The pretender..had friends in the tory government more sincere probably and zealous than [the earl of] Oxford. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 633 Wullenweber..turned to the nearest protestant pretender, Duke Christian, and offered him his assistance to obtain the crown. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 442 Every province..had its own Augustus. All these pretenders could not be rightful Emperors.
3. One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, esp. without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
1631Massinger Emperor East ii. i, A pretender To the art, I truly honour..your majesty's opinion. 1631― Believe as You List ii. ii, This false pretender To the correction of the law. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xviii. 89 So evident a lye, even in the pretenders own consciences. 1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 45 It is not so easy an Acquirement as a few ignorant Pretenders may imagine. 1784Cowper Task i. 492 That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name. 1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 122 Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural powers. 1871Jowett Plato I. 28 To distinguish the pretender in medicine from the true physician.
Hence Preˈtenderism Eng. Hist. = Jacobitism 1.
1710G. Hickes Let. in Thoresby's Corr. (ed. Hunter) II. 278 To purge themselves from all suspicion of Pretenderism (this is a new word) which their adversaries lay to their charge. 1859W. Chadwick De Foe iv. 239 The Duke..was conquering Toryism, Churchism, and Pretenderism. |