v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Interpreted; p. pr. & vb. n. Interpreting. ] [ F. interprêter, L. interpretari, p. p. interpretatus, fr. interpres interpeter, agent, negotiator; inter between + (prob.) the root of pretium price. See Price. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To explain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translate orally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; to decipher; to define; -- applied esp. to language, but also to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc.; as, to interpret the Hebrew language to an Englishman; to interpret an Indian speech. [ 1913 Webster ]

Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matt. i. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

And Pharaoh told them his dreams; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. Gen. xli. 8. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To apprehend and represent by means of art; to show by illustrative representation; as, an actor interprets the character of Hamlet; a musician interprets a sonata; an artist interprets a landscape.

Syn. -- To translate; explain; solve; render; expound; elucidate; decipher; unfold; unravel. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To act as an interpreter. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. interpretabilis: cf. F. interprêtable. ] Admitting of interpretation; capable of being interpreted or explained. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. interpretamentum. ] Interpretation. [ Obs. ] Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. interpretatio: cf. F. interprétation. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act of interpreting; explanation of what is obscure; translation; version; construction; as, the interpretation of a foreign language, of a dream, or of an enigma. [ 1913 Webster ]

Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The sense given by an interpreter; exposition or explanation given; meaning; as, commentators give various interpretations of the same passage of Scripture. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The power or explaining. [ R. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Fine Arts) An artist's way of expressing his thought or embodying his conception of nature. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Math.) The act or process of applying general principles or formulæ to the explanation of the results obtained in special cases.

Syn. -- Explanation; solution; translation; version; sense; exposition; rendering; definition. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. interprétatif. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Designed or fitted to interpret; explanatory. “Interpretative lexicography.” Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. According to interpretation; constructive. [ 1913 Webster ]

An interpretative siding with heresies. Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. By interpretation. Ray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. entrepreteur, L. interpretator. ] One who or that which interprets, explains, or expounds; a translator; especially, a person who translates orally between two parties. [ 1913 Webster ]

We think most men's actions to be the interpreters of their thoughts. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Interpretative. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To interpret erroneously; to understand or to explain in a wrong sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being misinterpreted; liable to be misunderstood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of interpreting erroneously; a mistaken interpretation. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who interprets erroneously. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat.) Situated in front of the temporal bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ LL. praetensus, for L. praetentus, p. p. of praetendere. See Pretend, and cf. Tension. ] 1. The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Primogeniture can not have any pretense to a right of solely inheriting property or power. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford. Evelyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation; as, pretense of illness; under pretense of patriotism; on pretense of revenging Cæsar's death. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let not the Trojans, with a feigned pretense
Of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Intention; design. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A very pretense and purpose of unkindness. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ See the Note under Offense. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Mask; appearance; color; show; pretext; excuse. -- Pretense, Pretext. A pretense is something held out as real when it is not so, thus falsifying the truth. A pretext is something woven up in order to cover or conceal one's true motives, feelings, or reasons. Pretext is often, but not always, used in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

n., a., a. See Pretense, Pretenseful, Pretenseless. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Pretended; p. pr. & vb. n. Pretending. ] [ OE. pretenden to lay claim to, F. prétendre, L. praetendere, praetentum, to stretch forward, pretend, simulate, assert; prae before + tendere to stretch. See Tend, v. t. ] 1. To lay a claim to; to allege a title to; to claim. [ 1913 Webster ]

Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Lest that too heavenly form, pretended
To hellish falsehood, snare them. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. 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; as, to pretend friendship. [ 1913 Webster ]

This let him know,
Lest, willfully transgressing, he pretend
Surprisal. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Such as shall pretend
Malicious practices against his state. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To hold before one; to extend. [ Obs. ] “His target always over her pretended.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. 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. “Countries that pretend to freedom.” Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

For to what fine he would anon pretend,
That know I well. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To hold out the appearance of being, possessing, or performing; to profess; to make believe; to feign; to sham; as, to pretend to be asleep. “[ He ] pretended to drink the waters.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A pretender; a claimant. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Making a false appearance; unreal; false; as, pretended friend. -- Pre*tend"ed*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. The act of pretending; pretense. [ Obs. ] Daniel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a claimant. Specifically, The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law. [ 1913 Webster ]

It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty. Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who pretends, simulates, or feigns. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The character, right, or claim of a pretender. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. As by right or title; arrogantly; presumptuously. Collier. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pretended; feigned. [ Obs. ] -- Pre*tens"ed*ly adv. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

a. Abounding in pretenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not having or making pretenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. prétention. See Pretend, Tension. ] 1. The act of pretending, or laying claim; the act of asserting right or title. [ 1913 Webster ]

The arrogant pretensions of Glengarry contributed to protract the discussion. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A claim made, whether true or false; a right alleged or assumed; a holding out the appearance of possessing a certain character; as, pretensions to scholarship. [ 1913 Webster ]

This was but an invention and pretension given out by the Spaniards. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Men indulge those opinions and practices that favor their pretensions. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. pre- + tentative: cf. L. praetentare to try beforehand. ] Fitted for trial beforehand; experimental. [ R. ] Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. prétentieux. See Pretend. ] Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming. -- Pre*ten"tious*ly, adv. -- Pre*ten"tious*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ L. praeter past, beyond, originally a compar. of prae before. See For, prep. ] A prefix signifying past, by, beyond, more than; as, preter- mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond or more than is natural. [ Written also præter. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. preter- + human. ] More than human. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. praeteriens, p. pr. See Preterit. ] Passed through; antecedent; previous; as, preterient states. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. [ Pref. preter- + imperfect. ] (Gram.) Old name of the tense also called imperfect. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Pref. preter- + -ist. ] 1. One whose chief interest is in the past; one who regards the past with most pleasure or favor. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Theol.) One who believes the prophecies of the Apocalypse to have been already fulfilled. Farrar. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. praeteritus, p. p. of praeterire to go or pass by; praeter beyond, by + ire to go: cf. F. prétérit. See Issue. ] [ Written also preterite and præterite. ] 1. (Gram.) Past; -- applied to a tense which expresses an action or state as past. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Belonging wholly to the past; passed by. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Things and persons as thoroughly preterite as Romulus or Numa. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Gram.) The preterit; also, a word in the preterit tense. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. Same as Preterit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Preteritness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. praeteritio: cf. F. prétérition. ] 1. The act of passing, or going past; the state of being past. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Rhet.) A figure by which, in pretending to pass over anything, a summary mention of it is made; as, “I will not say, he is valiant, he is learned, he is just.” Called also paraleipsis. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) The omission by a testator of some one of his heirs who is entitled to a portion. Bouvier. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Gram.) Used only or chiefly in the preterit or past tenses, as certain verbs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of being past. Bentley. Lowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. praeterlapsus, p. p. of praeterlabi to glide by. See Preter-, Lapse. ] Past; as, preterlapsed ages. [ R. ] Glanvill. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. preter- + legal. ] Exceeding the limits of law. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. praetermissio. See Pretermit. ] 1. The act of passing by or omitting; omission. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Rhet.) See Preterition. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Pretermitted; p. pr. & vb. n. Pretermitting. ] [ L. praetermittere, praetermissum; praeter beyond + mittere to send. See Mission. ] To pass by; to omit; to disregard. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. preter + natural. ] Beyond of different from what is natural, or according to the regular course of things, but not clearly supernatural or miraculous; strange; inexplicable; extraordinary; uncommon; irregular; abnormal; as, a preternatural appearance; a preternatural stillness; a preternatural presentation (in childbirth) or labor. [ 1913 Webster ]

This vile and preternatural temper of mind. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Supernatural. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being preternatural; a preternatural condition. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Preternaturalness. [ R. ] Dr. John Smith. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a preternatural manner or degree. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]