Meaning of pretext | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.
2. A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense
3. A reason or excuse given to hide the real reason for something.
4. To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else
5. a reason given in order to hide the real reason; an excuse. rede, verskoning عُذْر كاذِب предлог pretexto výmluva der Vorwand undskyldning; påskud πρόφασηpretexto ettekääne بهانه؛ عذر veruke prétexteתירוץ बहाना izlika, pod zilikom ürügy dalih yfirvarp pretesto 口実 구실, 핑계 pretekstas, dingstis iegansts; atruna dalih voorwendselpåskudd, unnskyldningpretekst بهانه، عذر pretexto pretext предлог, отговорка výhovorka pretveza izgovor förevändning, svepskäl, ursäkt ข้ออ้าง bahane 藉口，託辭 привід, відмовк...
6. a fictitious reason given in order to conceal the real one
7. a specious excuse; pretence
8. something put forward to conceal a true purpose or object; ostensible reason; excuse.
9. the misleading appearance or behavior assumed with this intention; subterfuge.
10. A professed rather than a real reason:pretense, pretension.
11. An explanation offered to justify an action or make it better understood:excuse, plea.
12. A deceptive outward appearance:cloak, color, coloring, cover, disguise, disguisement, façade, face, false colors, front, gloss, guise, mask, masquerade, pretense, semblance, show, veil, veneer, window-dressing.
13. n → Vorwand m; on or under the pretext of doing something → unter dem Vorwand, etw zu tun
    n

Equivalents

Examples

“The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.”

“[T]hey would ſay [...] that I had quarrell'd / My brother purpoſely, thereby to finde / An apt pretext, to baniſh them my houſe.”

“"After all," said the Chevalier, "these portraits—Madame de I'Hôpital's fortune-telling—the pleasure we take in a lover or a physician—may all be referred to the same cause,—we do so enjoy talking about ourselves; and yet we feel some sort of excuse necessary. It must be admitted, that we are ready in pretexts."”

“On every kind of pretext she would run away from work [...]”

“The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection.”

“When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.”

CEFR level