pretense

But the pretense shielded them both from the horror of the situation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

In the past, winks at some of the fouler ideas out there was enough to titillate the audience while keeping up the pretense of respectability.

From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2026

Any pretense at acceptance has long been discarded.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

It is supplying the constitutional context and stripping away the pretense courts so often cling to when they want to stay out of the fray.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

I ducked, shocked the gardener would go so far as to throw a stone just to keep up his pretense.

From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman

States have resorted to Rube Goldberg-like schemes to obtain drugs from abroad, sometimes under false pretenses, or have used drugs that are expired or improperly stored.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Barofsky said Fain declared under false pretenses that Boyer had been derelict in his duties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

It helps, too, that, by the nature of the film’s long-winded narrative structure, we’re able to witness the pretenses between Mary and Sam slowly fall away.

From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2026

But that news is tempered by the drumbeat of reports from the other end of the airport, where scores of arriving travelers have been detained in frightening conditions and under flimsy pretenses.

From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2025

The Jefferson style was to evade, maintain pretenses, then convince himself that all was well.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis