Making a false appearance; unreal; false; as, pretended friend.

Feigned; ostensible; hypocritical.

" And mamma wants to see you just for a minute," added Nina, in a pretended whisper. – The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

I have always known that people would only come to me for what I have got to give and I have pretended that I do not care. – The Dark Forest by Hugh Walpole

So she pretended to be quite unconscious of her old enemy's presence. – Don Orsino by F. Marion Crawford

They did not know that he could understand their language, and they said to each other, while Joseph heard, but pretended not to hear: This has come upon us because of the wrong that we did to our brother Joseph, more than twenty years ago. – The Wonder Book of Bible Stories by Compiled by Logan Marshall

I pretended to be absorbed in my fishing, but really I was watching Greaser. – The Young Forester by Zane Grey

She might have pretended that she was starting on her great journey. – The Garden Of Allah by Robert Hichens

Parker pretended to be a little nervous. – The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop by Hamlin Garland

She at first pretended not to notice her brother- in- law; but presently she just nodded her head to him, without speaking. – The Fat and the Thin by Emile Zola

I knew he wasn't so desperately absorbed in them as he pretended to be. – In the Bishop's Carriage by Miriam Michelson

The pain in his legs increased so that he walked less and less each day, but when he saw how it worried me he pretended that he was getting better and had never been as well in his life. – Edgar Saltus: The Man by Marie Saltus

Whether they believed the folly about the black box, and all that stuff, is not for me to say; only one thing I know, they pretended to do so, and persuaded the ignorant rustics. – Lorna Doone, A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. Blackmore

Jerry pretended not to hear. – Swamp Island by Mildred A. Wirt

She believed that Isadore was as sleepy as he pretended to be. – Comrade Yetta by Albert Edwards

He pretended he had forgotten all about it. – Mr. Waddington of Wyck by May Sinclair

Now she pretended not to hear. – The Saint by Antonio Fogazzaro Commentator: William Roscoe Thayer

She had stayed on with him through the first winter in the place they had taken for the summer, because she wished to be with him, rather than because she wished to be there, and he had stayed because he had not just found the moment to break away, though afterwards he pretended a reason for staying. – Questionable Shapes by William Dean Howells

I never pretended when I gave my hand to Colonel Wilders that I had not been married before. – The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood by Arthur Griffiths

As he pretended not to see me, I pretended not to see him. – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens