Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Playful or fanciful pretense.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Pretense; sham; false or fanciful representation.
- Unreal; sham; pretended.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To pretend; -- often used with that, but often having the that omitted.
- noun A feigning to believe, as in the play of children; a mere pretense; a fiction; an invention.
- adjective Feigned; insincere.
- adjective Imaginary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The quality or act of
pretending ; assuming something is true when in fact one knows it is not.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb represent fictitiously, as in a play, or pretend to be or act like
- noun the enactment of a pretense
- noun imaginative intellectual play
- adjective imagined as in a play
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Vampires were just make-believe; horror-movie stuff like demons and zombies.
Haven Kristi Cook 2011
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Despite my resources, despite my high profile, when it came to intimate relationships I lived in the world of make-believe.
True You Janet Jackson 2011
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My make-believe was more convincing because Nana had gone upstairs to quilt while dinner baked, and the kiddo was doing homework at the dinette.
Arcane Circle Linda Robertson 2011
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And, as always, to Mom and Dad and my family and friends for the unwavering support, and to Audrey, James, and Jonathan for putting up with my “spacey” moments and allowing me time to dwell in make-believe lands.
Darkness Becomes Her Kelly Keaton 2011
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The discrepancy between the Congressional Budget Office's findings and those make-believe numbers from the White House leaves us with an 8.6% shortfall, but that piece of legislation is not our only worry.
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So I made up some Cubans, put a make-believe protagonist among them and published a novel that caught not the place I'd seen and transcribed so much as the one I'd felt and intuited.
The Good Luck of Notes Turned to Ash Pico Iyer 2011
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This ain't Powerpoint make-believe no more - it's building a real, working rocket.
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With documentaries I guess I feel I want to just enjoy a world of make-believe, of fiction, and not have my emotions tossed all over the place.
Movie Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop « Colleen Anderson 2010
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Yes, Massenet tells the tale charmingly and makes much of those moments that have fuelled children's make-believe for all time – the ball, the midnight-hour escape and that magical shoe-fitting episode.
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Vampires were just make-believe; horror-movie stuff like demons and zombies.
Haven Kristi Cook 2011
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