pretend

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To give a false appearance of; feign: "You had to pretend conformity while privately pursuing high and dangerous nonconformism” ( Anthony Burgess).
2. v. To claim or allege insincerely or falsely; profess: doesn't pretend to be an expert.
3. v. To represent fictitiously in play; make believe: pretended they were on a cruise.
4. v. To take upon oneself; venture: I cannot pretend to say that you are wrong.
5. v. To feign an action or character, as in play.
6. v. To put forward a claim.
7. v. To make pretensions: pretends to gourmet tastes.
8. adj. Informal Imitation; make-believe: pretend money; pretend pearls.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To hold out before one or in front; stretch forward; hence, to put before one for action, consideration, or acceptance; offer; present.
2. To put forward as a statement or an assertion; especially, to allege or declare falsely or with intent to deceive.
3. To put forward as a reason or excuse; use as a pretext; allege as a ground or reason; hence, to put forward a false appearance of; simulate; counterfeit; feign.
4. To lay claim to; assert as a right or possession; claim.
5. To aspire to; attempt; undertake.
6. To intend; design; plan; plot.
7. To presage; portend; forebode.
8. To stretch or reach forward; aim; aspire: often with to.
9. To lay claim; assert a right of ownership or possession: generally followed by to.
10. To make pretense; make believe; counterfeit or feign.

Wiktionary

1. v. To make oneself appear to do or be doing something; to engage in make-believe.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim.
2. v. rare To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden.
3. v. To hold out, or represent, falsely; to put forward, or offer, as true or real (something untrue or unreal); to show hypocritically, or for the purpose of deceiving; to simulate; to feign.
4. v. obsolete To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt.
5. v. obsolete To hold before one; to extend.
6. v. To put in, or make, a claim, truly or falsely; to allege a title; to lay claim to, or strive after, something; -- usually with to.
7. v. To hold out the appearance of being, possessing, or performing; to profess; to make believe; to feign; to sham.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation
2. v. put forward a claim and assert right or possession of
3. n. the enactment of a pretense
4. adj. imagined as in a play
5. v. make believe with the intent to deceive
6. v. represent fictitiously, as in a play, or pretend to be or act like
7. v. behave unnaturally or affectedly
8. v. state insincerely