different between picture vs pretend

For Wiktionary's policy on pictures, see Wiktionary:Pictures

English

Etymology

From Middle English pycture, from Old French picture, itself from Latin pict?ra (“the art of painting, a painting”), from ping? (“I paint”). Doublet of pictura.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?kt??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?k(t)??/
• (US, regional) IPA^(key): /?p?t??/
• Rhymes: -?kt??(?)
• Homophone: pitcher (US, regional)

Noun

picture (plural pictures)

1. A representation of anything (as a person, a landscape, a building) upon canvas, paper, or other surface, by drawing, painting, printing, photography, etc.
2. An image; a representation as in the imagination.
   • 1828, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Day Dream

     My eyes make pictures when they are shut.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 2007, The Workers' Republic

     Prior to seeing him and meeting him, and hearing him speak, I had conjured up a picture of him in my mind, which actual contact with him proved to be an illusion. I had conceived of him […] as being tall, commanding, and as the advance notices of him, a sliver-tongued orator. I found him, however, to be the opposite of my mental picture; short, squat, unpretentious […].

3. A painting.
4. A photograph.
5. (informal, dated) A motion picture.
6. (in the plural, informal) ("the pictures") Cinema (as a form of entertainment).

7. A paragon, a perfect example or specimen (of a category).
8. An attractive sight.
9. The art of painting; representation by painting.
   • 1862, Henry Barnard, "Sir Henry Wotton" in American Journal of Education

     any well-expressed image […] either in picture or sculpture

10. A figure; a model.
    • September 8, 1620, James Howell, "To my Brother Dr. Howell" in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ

      the young king's picture […] in virgin wax

11. Situation.

Synonyms

• (representation as in the imagination): image

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

picture (third-person singular simple present pictures, present participle picturing, simple past and past participle pictured)

1. (transitive) To represent in or with a picture.
2. (transitive) To imagine or envision.
3. (transitive) To depict or describe vividly.

Translations

Related terms

• depict
• depiction
• pictorial

See also

• Wiktionary:Picture dictionary

Further reading

• picture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• picture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cuprite

Latin

Participle

pict?re

1. vocative masculine singular of pict?rus

Norman

Etymology

From Old French picture, borrowed from Latin pict?ra (“the art of painting, a painting”) (compare the inherited Old French form peinture), from ping?, pingere (“paint; decorate, embellish”), from Proto-Indo-European *pey?- (“spot, color”).

Noun

picture f (plural pictures)

1. (Guernsey) picture

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman pretendre, Middle French pretendre (French prétendre (“to claim, demand”)), from Latin praetendere, present active infinitive of praetend? (“put forward, hold out, pretend”), from prae- (“pre-”) + tend? (“stretch”); see tend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???t?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd
• Hyphenation: pre?tend

Verb

pretend (third-person singular simple present pretends, present participle pretending, simple past and past participle pretended)

1. To claim, to allege, especially when falsely or as a form of deliberate deception. [from 14th c.]
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, XVIII.23:

     "After what past at Upton, so soon to engage in a new amour with another woman, while I fancied, and you pretended, your heart was bleeding for me!"

   • 2009 April 13, “Vanity publishing”, in The Economist:

     I have nothing but contempt for people who hire ghost-writers. But at least most faux authors have the decency to pretend that they are sweating blood over "their" book.

2. To feign, affect (a state, quality, etc.). [from 15th c.]
   • 2007 October 29, The Guardian, London:

     Gap and other clothes manufacturers should stop using small subcontractors because they are difficult to control. Instead, they should open up their own fully-owned production facilities so that they cannot pretend ignorance when abuses are committed.

3. To lay claim to (an ability, status, advantage, etc.). [from 15th c.] (originally used without to)
   • 1682, John Dryden, The Medal

     Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.25:

     People observed the diversity of schools and the acerbity of their disputes, and decided that all alike were pretending to knowledge which was in fact unattainable.

4. To make oneself appear to do or be doing something; to engage in make-believe.
   • 2003 January 23, Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, London:

     Luster claimed that the women had consented to sex and were only pretending to be asleep.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To intend; to design, to plot; to attempt.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To hold before one; to extend.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.11:

     Pastorella […] Was by the Captaine all this while defended, / Who, minding more her safety then himselfe, / His target alwayes over her pretended […].

Usage notes

This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Related terms

• pretender
• pretense
• pretension
• pretentious
• pretentiousness

Translations

Further reading

• pretend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• pretend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Adjective

pretend (not comparable)

1. Not really what it is represented as being; imaginary, feigned.

   As children we used to go on "spying" missions around the neighbour's house, but it was all pretend.

Translations