1425 W. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 3 His pretense of his title to þe priourie of Bromholm is adnulled.

c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. 1141 (MED) Kynges in her bed are slawe, Whiche bringeth in alyenacioun, By extort title fals successioun; Þer may colour of pretense seme, But ful streitly God shal after deme And iustly venge.

1495 Act 11 Hen. VII c. 47 Preamble Youre seid Suppliant [hath] contynually ben seised..therof..hidirto without any pretence or clayme made therto by the seid Duke.

1522 in Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1649) 127 To prevent ambiguities and quarrels, each Prince before May 1524, shall declare his pretences.

1571 G. Buchanan Admonitioun Trew Lordis sig. A 6 Sic men as hes na pretens of successioun to the Crowne, or any hoip of proffeit to cum.

1637 Inventory Lennoxlove C1/10086 The pretences of my Lord Crumwell shall not longer hinder the passinge of my graunt.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 825 Spirits that in our just pretenses arm'd Fell with us from on high. View more context for this quotation

1683 W. Temple Mem. in Wks. (1731) I. 410 His Highness had a long Pretence depending at Madrid, for about Two hundred thousand Pounds owing to his Family from that Crown.

1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 186 No Man has..more Pretence to speak of Nitre, than M. Boyle.

1766 G. G. Beekman Let. 10 Feb. in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) I. 492 You yourself Drew Up an Order..which we all Signed Accordingly and for my Part I Looked upon that as a Quit Claim and never since Entertained the Least thought of Ever haveing a Pretence to it Or Any Part of it.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xvi. 679 Marlborough calmly and politely showed that the pretence was unreasonable.

1860 Times 31 July 12/6 De Martino has far more pretence to the title of Liberal than any of his subordinates.

1894 Lincoln (Nebraska) Evening News 25 May 2/1 The queen would resign all pretense to the throne.

1953 Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio) 20 Jan. 4/2 His theft of a magazine piece about the old Mauretania, an offense for which Nevens, in his pretense to the title of ‘Author’, should despise Roosevelt beyond forgiveness.

1994 Irish Times (Nexis) 10 Aug. 15 Of those with genuine pretence to the [European 3,000 metres] title, the most obvious threat is Yvonne Murray.

1788 Heraldry in Miniature (new ed.) 28 Pretence, or escutcheon of pretence,—is that on which a husband carries the coat of his wife, being an heiress.]

1869 J. E. Cussans Handbk. Heraldry (rev. ed.) xvii. 217 The only difference between the Arms of William and those of Mary was, that the former bore Nassau in pretence.

1969 J. P. Brooke-Little Fox-Davies's Compl. Guide Heraldry 414 A man, in succeeding to a lordship in right of his wife, would wish to bear the arms associated therewith. He placed them..upon his own, and arms exclusively of a territorial character have certainly very frequently been placed ‘in pretence’.

1988 T. Woodcock & J. M. Robinson Oxf. Guide Heraldry vii. 124 When the 3rd Duke of Richmond asked Stephen Martin Leake, Garter, how he should bear his coat in pretence with the arms of Bruce, also in pretence, for his wife, Garter suggested quartering Aubigny but this was rejected.

a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) iv. 2553 (MED) But froward rancour..Gaff hir a spirit of feyned pacience, A fals pretence of..magnificence.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. CCii^v But for shame she wyll nat make suche pretence, as to aske them openly.

1567 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. iv. 39 My Princelie pretence began to decay.

1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar §26 There are no greater fools in the world then such, whose life conformes not to the pretence of their baptisme and institution.

1788 W. Hayley Ess. on Hist. II. 5 Like other Prudes, leaves Beauty's lost pretence, And strives to charm by Sentiment and Sense.

1840 Times 8 Oct. 2/6 She dressed simply, without pretence, yet with taste and care to cover..the misfortune of her shape.

1885 Manch. Examiner 20 Mar. 8/6 His bearing had always a kind of stateliness, utterly free from pomp or pretence.

1931 H. Read Meaning of Art ii. 127 His characteristic sayings reflect his modesty and his lack of pretence in all that concerned his craft.

1962 K. Martin Crown & Establishm. vi. 115 George VI..had never been clever, was free from pretence and did not want publicity.

2003 Guelph (Ont., Canada) Mercury (Nexis) 15 Feb. c 1 Her lack of pretence makes for an obvious connection with fans.

1653 H. More Antidote against Atheisme Pref. A1^v The Atheist's pretence to wit and natural reason (though the foulenesse of his mind makes him fumble very dotingly in the use thereof) makes the Enthusiast cure that reason is no Guide to God.

1726 Bp. J. Butler 15 Serm. vii. 131 Persons..who yet make great Pretences to Religion.

1762 S. Scott Descr. Millenium Hall 46 She had a regular set of features, but they wanted to be softened into effeminacy, before they could have any just pretence to beauty.

1801 M. Edgeworth Forester in Moral Tales I. 24 Fashionable dialect..destitute of any pretence to wit.

1823 W. Hazlitt in Edinb. Rev. 38 365 The tide of gold no longer flowed up the river, and the tide of Billingsgate and blood could no longer flow down it, with any pretence to decency, morality, or religion.

1872 S. Butler Erewhon xix. 171 The misery was that their Ydgrun-worship required all people with any pretence to respectability to send their children to some one or other of these schools.

1901 Davenport (Iowa) Daily Republican 6 July 6/3 Solidly, unromantically comfortable, without a pretense to beauty or picturesqueness, modest in size, the Elm stands tight, defiantly unlovely.

1966 Daily Times-News (Burlington, N. Carolina) 14 Apr. 2 c Chanel was responsible for the somewhat country casual look of everything. Absolutely no pretense to elegance even at the benefit luncheons.

2005 Australian (Nexis) 20 July 14 It is no act of tolerance to disguise the identity of criminals, as if any pretence to religion explains or excuses anybody's actions.

1440 Chancery Proc. Ser. C1 File 9 No. 425 (MED) The sayde Robert, by the pretence and the supposel of his bille, supposyth that the seyde Willyam and Thomas Redehode..haueth rased and transposed the condicion of the seyde obligacion.

1452 Duke of York in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) II. 78 In somuch as the same suggestion and surmission toucheth oure honneur and the pretense therof shuld yeve vs occasion of greet noyse and charge, we certifie vnto you..þat we knewe neuere such feffement made.

1608 E. Topsell Hist. Serpents 79 [The drones] suffer punnishment..for pretence of idlenesse, gluttony, extertion, and rauenous greedinesse, to which they are too much adicted.

1642 tr. J. Perkins Profitable Bk. vi. §470. 205 The wife dyeth within one day after the descent, so as the husband could not enter during the coverture for the shortnesse of the time, yet he shall not bee tenant by the curtesie. And yet according to common pretence there is no default in the husband.

1656 J. Bramhall Replic. to Bishop of Chalcedon ii. 111 How many of the orthodox Clergy, without pretence of any other delinquency have been beggered?

1754 Bp. T. Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. i. 5 But let us, if you please, examine this Pretence.

1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. x. 161 The pretence that corporations are necessary for the better government of the trade, is without any foundation. View more context for this quotation

1819 Times 28 Jan. 2/2 His pretence, that the 9th article of the treaty of Ghent could have any application to his Indians, was utterly destitute of foundation.

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xi. 179 The pretence is that the noble is of unbroken descent from the Norman... But the fact is otherwise.

1940 C. Morgan Voyage iii. vii. 281 What they have done is to give the impression that your whole legend is a pretence, that there is no naturalness within it, no stability or endurance.

1993 Humanist in Canada Winter 39/1 His pretence that he passed up the 100% certainty provided by such a device..has as much plausibility as Aristophanes' claim that Pericles started the Peloponnesian War because a group of Spartans left Aspasia's whorehouse without paying.

1862 C. Kingsley Water-babies ii, in Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 362/1 Don't you know that this is a fairy tale, and all fun and pretence; and that you are not to believe one word of it, even if it is true?

1934 W. W. Gill Manx Dial. ii. 91 Let's play pretence, Boy-beg.

1974 Philos. & Phenomenological Res. 34 560 The two cases of pretence in question..are what we might call..‘deception pretence’ and ‘performance pretence’.

1998 L. R. Goldman Child's Play Introd. 2 Pretence is..symbolic, referential and communicative behaviour.