Pretender \Pre*tend"er\, n.
1. One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a
claimant. Specifically, The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the
son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal
family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great
Britain, from which the house was excluded by law.
[1913 Webster]
It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are
the confident pretenders to certainty. --Glanvill.
[1913 Webster]
2. One who pretends, simulates, or feigns.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Pretender
n 1: a claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually
without just title)
2: a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: imposter, impostor,
fake, faker, fraud, sham, shammer, pseudo, pseud,
role player]
3: a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he does not
hold [syn: hypocrite, dissembler, phony, phoney]
WordNet (r) 2.0
41 Moby Thesaurus words for "pretender":
actor, affecter, arrogator, aspirant, blagueur, bluff, bluffer,
candidate, charlatan, claimant, deceiver, fake, faker, fourflusher,
fraud, hollow man, humbug, impersonator, impostor, malingerer,
man of straw, mannerist, mountebank, paper tiger, performer, phony,
playactor, poser, poseur, quack, quacksalver, quackster, ringer,
rival, saltimbanco, seeker, sham, shammer, straw man, suitor,
usurper
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
|
|
|