SG Heritage Dictionary

Pretext [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Pretense; false appearance; ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive. He gave plausible reasons for this conduct, but these were only a pretext to conceal his real motives.

2. He made pretext that I should only go

3. And help convey his freight; but thought not so.

4. They suck the blood of those they depend on, under a pretext of service and kindness.

Pretext [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise.

Pretexture [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

A pretext.

Untruth Roget’s Thesaurus §546

N. untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration) 549, myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and betty martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, judas kiss, disguise

V. have a false meaning

Adj. untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant

Phr. se non e vero e ben trovato, "where none is meant that meets the ear"

Pretext Roget’s Thesaurus §617

N. pretext, pretense, pretension, plea|, allegation, advocation, ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason, excuse, subterfuge, color, gloss, guise, cover, loop hole, starting hole, how to creep out of, salvo, come off, way of escape, handle, peg to hang on, room locus standi, stalking-horse, cheval de bataille, cue, pretense, put off, dust thrown in the eyes, blind, moonshine, mere pretext, shallow pretext, lame excuse, lame apology, tub to a whale, false plea, sour grapes, makeshift, shift, white lie, special pleading, soft sawder

V. pretend, plead, allege, shelter oneself under the plea of, excuse, lend a color to, furnish a handle, make a pretext of, make a handle of, use as a plea, take one's stand upon, make capital out of, pretend

Adj. ostensibly, alleged, apologetic, pretended

Adv. ostensibly, under color, under the plea, under the pretense of, under the guise of, 3, objects of volition