pretext
pretext
Definition
pre·text (prē′tekst′)
pretext
Synonyms
pretext
Usage Examples
Preposition: of
- war: It is about attempting to use the pretext of war against Slobodan Milosevic to dominate the whole of the Balkans.
Converse of object
- invent: Behold, he invents pretexts against me; he counts me as his enemy.
- create: Reports of large Yugoslav troop movements around Kosova have created a further pretext for NATO to repeat its threat to launch military action.
- find: He must have found some pretext for giving her an injection.
- seek: The church in this village had been harassed by local authorities, who may have been seeking a pretext to arrest the church leaders.
- provide: Often the van will have the name of a shop or utility company to provide some pretext for its being in the area.
- become: These were genuine enough but became the pretext for excessive equity valuations, fueling a general economic boom.
Preposition: for
- invasion: The harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an invasion.
- war: Weapons of mass destruction offered little more than a convenient pretext for a war conjured up to serve a multiplicity of ends.
- intervention: On the contrary their aim is to perpetuate instability in the region and provide the pretext for further intervention in the future.
- attack: If true its a much better pretext for an attack on Iraq than the tenuous link to the anthrax scare.
- action: There may be another pretext for an action - the Iraqi weapons program.
- aggression: The question is does the other side want to get to the same conclusion or are they looking for a pretext for aggression?
Adjective modifier
- flimsy: Reliability Cancel meetings frequently on the flimsiest pretexts that you can.
- plausible: It did not finish the job and, according to the FFH, gave no plausible pretext to justify interrupting the work.
- false: Was taking the country to war on a false pretext not an error of judgment?
- slight: Many people to whom the Colonel owed a grudge were, on the slightest pretext, incarcerated in the dungeon.
- convenient: Weapons of mass destruction offered little more than a convenient pretext for a war conjured up to serve a multiplicity of ends.
- mere: Perhaps the truth is that the film's brutal violence and misogynistic attitude are mere pretexts for its condemnation.
Modifies a noun
- call: Agents can freely make pretext calls to criminal elements by using caller ID spoofing.
pretext Quotes
Para decirlo de otra manera, no es la herida la que causo¤ el grito, sino exactamente a la inversa; para herirse es preciso el grito, todo lo dema¤ s es un pretexto. In other words, it was not the wound that caused the scream, but precisely the opposite: to get wounded one needs the scream; the rest is only a pretext.
Browse dictionary entries near pretext
- pretest
- preternatural
- pretermitted heir
- pretermit
- preterm
- preterition
- preterit
- preterhuman
- preter-
- pretentious
- pretexting
- pretor
- Pretoria
- pretrial
- prettify
- prettily
- pretty
- Pretty Good Privacy
- pretzel
- prev.
