How To Use Pretext In A Sentence

There was also a report that Japan was dispatching its troops to Korea on the pretext of protecting its legation.
The principle of comity is that when one court exercising proper jurisdiction renders an opinion concerning a specific case, then that opinion is binding on other courts to which this same case (same parties, same facts, same issues) is re-presented to a different court under some pretext, except where the second court is exercising appellate review over the first decision. The Volokh Conspiracy » District Court Opinions Precedential Within the Same District?
The centerpiece of that strategy is the use of minor infractions as pretexts to lock up suspects on whom the government lacks sufficient evidence to accuse them of more serious crimes.
One such pretext was the liberation of an area known as the Shaba Farms near Mount Hermon. The Secret War with Iran
The silly pretext of difficulties by which my erasure, notwithstanding the reiterated solicitations of the victorious General, was so long delayed made me apprehensive of a renewal, under a weak and jealous pentarchy, of the horrible scenes of 1796. Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon

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He has had his heart set on launching a punitive war on whatever pretext.
Opposition leaders accused the government of orchestrating the 2003 coup as a pretext for purging the military and cracking down on political opponents.
Of course, there are always good pretexts to postpone political reform.
The pretext to begin circulating Perry's name for a presidential run will be easily established, and the Tea Partiers that he energized with his irresponsible talk of secession will slowly turn pragmatic and confront the question of who can win in 2012. James Moore: Yo, America. It's Texas. We Got Another One for Ya!
I had been almost ready to invent some pretext for a foray to the northward.
We are not satisfied with the flavor nature has given to gallinaceous fowls, art has taken possession of them, and under the pretext of ameliorating, has made martyrs of them. The physiology of taste; or Transcendental gastronomy. Illustrated by anecdotes of distinguished artists and statesmen of both continents by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Translated from the last Paris edition by Fayette Robinson.
The incident provided the pretext for war.
Whether the theory truly tipped non-violent musers into killers, or whether it merely gave a pretext to psychopaths, simpletons and romantics to commit murders, is unclear.
It is very alarming that some Bantustan administrations have been given land for personal use under the pretext of so-called chieftainship whereas these leaders are historically and traditionally not chiefs. ANC Daily News Briefing
Those who crossed into Kansas after the governor's proclamation and endeavored to continue actual inhabitancy, were with difficulty distinguished from those who now crossed for the first time, under a similar pretext. Stephen A. Douglas A Study in American Politics
It is affirmed that the aumils and renters exact from the proprietors of the actual harvest a large increase in kind on their stipulated rent: that is, from those who hold their _pottah_ by the tenure of paying _one half_ of the produce of their crops, either _the whole_ without subterfuge, or a _large_ proportion of it by a _false measurement_ or other pretexts; and from those whose engagements are for The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12)
The Democratic Party demonstrated its abandonment of any pretext of opposition by foregoing the traditional response of the minority party to a presidential address to Congress.
And the longer Blix and co. fossicked around in search of weapons of mass destruction, the more cynical I became about the pretext. Boris in Iraq
In creative groups, failure is regarded as a learning experience, not a pretext for punishment.
The day before he carried out the bomb attack, he left the house under the pretext he was going to visit friends.
They make their student-years but a pretext for a life of rough debauchery, from which they issue with a bought diploma; and, in many cases, satiated and disgusted with their own lives, they dwindle down into the timeserving reactionaries, the worst enemies of free development, because they themselves have abused in youth the little liberty they enjoyed. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 41, March, 1861
He used his sore finger as a pretext for not going to school.
Marrying Marguerite would provide him the perfect pretext for releasing the infanta from this pledge. A Friday Snippet
This would bring an end to his many attempts to extort money from organisations on the flimsiest of pretexts.
That time frame leaves an almost inexhaustible supply of pretexts to draw upon in the fight against the West.
Inasmuch as the disinherison or omission by parents of their children has generally no good reason, those children who complain that they have been wrongfully disinherited or passed over have been allowed to bring an action impeaching the will as unduteous, under the pretext that the testator was of unsound mind at the time of its execution. The Institutes of Justinian
However many parts of the land were appropriated by the government on one pretext or the other and no compensation, though promised, was paid to the dargah.
The buzz is that the political agenda of the Minister's visit was merely a pretext.
On the pretext of a threat to their security, they invade an independent country far away from home.
The investigators' methods included obtaining phone records using false pretences, a process known as pretexting. Times, Sunday Times
They oppose it under the pretext of its being impracticable.
The inquiry used a method known as 'pretexting', where phone records are obtained by impersonating the call-maker. Times, Sunday Times
They may cloak themselves in all manner of legalistic garb, prattling about human rights and producing other pretexts for trying to stop us because we're on the side of the angels.
He pretexted an early engagement in town the next morning.
It is rather the object than the pretext which must be taken into account, but it is clear that she is exposed to the punishment of digamy. NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works
The caca is just a pretext for a clown show.
The border dispute was used as a pretext for military intervention.
IN anfwcr to the note delivered yefterday, November 26, by Lord Malmeftury, the underfigned miniftef for foreign affairs is inftrufted by the Direftory to obferve, that the anfwers made 'on the 5th and 22d of lail Brumaire contained an acknow-i ledgement of the principle of compenfation, and that, in order to remove every pretext for farther difcuflion on that point, the underfigned, in the name of the Executive Dire6lory, now makes. A Collection of State Papers Relative to the War Against France Now Carrying on by Great Britain ...
I remember most of all the strange inactivity of the powerful - there were plenty of legal pretexts to arrest anyone who physically barred the tankers' way out, but nothing much seemed to happen.
Another source of spurious profundity is DeLillo's constant allusions to momentous feelings and portents — allusions that are either left hanging in the air or are conveniently cut short by a narrative pretext. A Reader's Manifesto
Still he was loth to depart, and, cudgelling his brains for a pretext, he set up a rambling discourse on River Plate weather. CHAPTER XXIX
While thus engaged he was, under pretext of union, finally and fatally subjugated by the Scot.
The pretext for socialization of minting - one which has curiously been accepted by almost every economist - is that private minters would defraud the public on the weight and fineness of the coins.
This was all on the pretext that he had to check the audibility and balance of the orchestra. Brian Dickie: Slowly But Surely...
That long-standing consensus does not dispositively prove that the law is constitutional, but the fact that nobody claimed that FISA was unconstitutional until it was revealed that President Bush has been violating that law, is rather compelling evidence of just how weak and pretextual that claim is. posted by Glenn Greenwald | 10:22 AM Gen. Hayden admits the Administration knew it was violating FISA
He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.
sectionalism," the identical pretext upon which the South inaugurated its rebellion against his Administration four years afterwards: Abraham Lincoln, a History — Volume 02
He was vexed with the levity that had made him call his roomful together on so poor a pretext, and yet was vexed with the stupidity that made the witnesses so evidently find the pretext sufficient. The Tragic Muse
The conflict over the caricatures, like almost any other of a religious nature or pretext, is childish and trivial and should be a work of fiction. Totem And Task
The nonconformist painter's incompatibility with French colonial life provided Maugham with a pretext to explore the role of the artist in society.
But war was its pretext. Somewhere East of Life
They looked for that pretext from the first moment that they had the first excuse to. 1350th Day - :: gia’s blog ::
Sir Phelim O'Neil, the most considerable man of his name tolerated in Ulster, was looked upon as the greatest acquisition, and at his castle of Kinnaird his associates from the neighbouring counties, under a variety of pretexts, contrived frequently to meet. A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete
Of course such action is always highly debatable and often used as a pretext for something much more sinister. Times, Sunday Times
Montano who was taking anthropometrical measurements of Manóbos in the towns through which he passed, but as Urios remarks, this was only a pretext for withdrawing from a form of life that did not suit them. The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir
Khmelnytsky sought help against the Poles in a treaty with Moscow in 1654, which was used as a pretext for occupation by the Muscovites.
Sure enough, at crowdie-time, the men were seen coming aft, with Maxwell in the van carrying a bowl, on the pretext of a complaint against the cook. Richard Carvel — Volume 04
This is probably because we're not paranoid loons desperate for any pretext to start a fight.
For an encore he invaded India in 1398 on the pretext that the Muslim sultan of Delhi was being too tolerant of his Hindu subjects.
Moreover, where national enterprises are non-competitive, the imperial states invent pretexts to protect them from more efficient producers.
It is about fleecing people blind and taking money on any pretext without any real sense of sensibility around it whatsoever.
When we first moved out to the ranch several years ago, it was almost like the villagers were having a contest to see who could gain admittance to the property on one pretext or another. Effect of Financial crisis on ex-pat retirees
On this pretext, the police can refuse to produce documents, give evidence, answer interrogatories or provide particulars.
All of the pretexts used to justify the war have proven to be lies and fabrications.
And what of dignity or meaning could be said? where talking of sacred subjects is not allowed, under the pretext that it scatters those blessings which should be carefully treasured up; and bestowing much information concerning the secular plans of economy practiced by your own to the other sex is not approved; and where to talk of literary matters would be termed bombastic pedantry and small display, and would serve to exhibit accomplishments which might be enticingly dangerous. The Communistic Societies of the United States From Personal Visit and Observation
Tom called at her apartment on the pretext of asking for a book.
Yet each step brought not the institutionalisation of these people's forms but the cementing of minority representative forms on the pretext that such minority representative structures are much more wieldy and more manageable.
In the same way I used to practice my magic tricks, I practiced pretexting.
This process, called recision, was usually done on the pretext that people had previously un-reported pre-existing conditions, like acne, spousal abuse, etc. The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
A foot-high image, a satin puppet all be-diamonded, is a splendid pretext for a binge. Pilgrimage with La Virgen de Zapopan from "A House in the Sun" by Dane Chandos
When they are asked the reason for this furious and truceless war, they allege psalms and a kind of music varying from the custom which has obtained among you, and similar pretexts of which they ought to be ashamed. NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works
In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines.
In such cases, consult a library or use the pretext of doing research to gain access. Corporate Cloak and Dagger
If he heard Delmare scolding, Ralph would grasp the first pretext that came to his mind to go to him, and would succeed in pacifying him or diverting his thoughts without ever allowing him to suspect that such was his purpose. Indiana
The incident provided the pretext for war.
Nevertheless it was their turning back, or being _sent back_, as it was called, that gave a pretext to the slander that was then started. With Rimington
Aussi plusieurs critiques, quelques-uns français, ont-ils fait de cet attribut une manière de prétexte pour leur assigner en partage la prose et pour leur retirer la faculté poétique. A Study of Poetry
For example, stubborn characters who need to be convinced to agree with the Mary Sue, will do so on the flimsiest of pretexts just so that the Mary Sue can “win” the story. Who Mary Sue Isn’t at SF Novelists
Some of us are chary of giving every stranger in ping-shot a pretext for striking up a conversation. Digital Signalling
Some fear that the violence could be used as a pretext to cancel or delay elections. Times, Sunday Times
That charge could make sense on the assumption that the “colour-blindness” of the programmes advocated is merely pretextual. The Volokh Conspiracy » Canadian University Restricting Graphic Posters That Compare Abortion to Genocide
Fars News Agency, the semiofficial Iranian news agency announced yesterday that "the elements of unlawful assembly hypocrites, monarchists, thugs and intrigue in some streets of Tehran with a pretext to support the people of Egypt and Tunisia, held slogans in support of the people of Egypt and Tunisia. Haggai Carmon: The Domino Effect: Is Iran Next?
He has often sought to justify repression on the pretexts of threatened coups against his government.
Maybe now was a good time to go back to the funeral home on the pretext of continuing my search for the missing bodies. NO BODY
These provocations became the pretext for police attacks on peaceful demonstrators.
An economic blockade was imposed on landlocked Nepal, using the pretext that negotiations over the trade treaty between the two countries had reached deadlock. BLOOD AGAINST THE SNOWS: The Tragic Story of Nepal's Royal Dynasty
But that relief would have quickly turned to a different flavor of alarm when the victims realized that Under the pretext of a drug search, the five-man robbery crew ransacked the Locklear home in search of large amounts of cash that could be "forfeited" - that is, stolen - as alleged drug proceeds. LewRockwell.com
The border dispute was used as a pretext for military intervention.
President Obama accused Iran's leaders of hypocrisy for first encouraging the protests in Egypt, which they described as a continuation of Iran's own revolution, and then cracking down on Iranians who used the pretext to come out on the streets. NYT > Home Page
States which are defenseless can be attacked at will, with the most flimsy pretexts and virtually no international support.
For example, the Disability Discrimination Act applies to small business and service providers but apparently local authorities and their partners, on any number of pretexts, can fail to comply.
Western European “explorers” annihilated millions of indigenous people in the “New World” under the pretext that they practiced anthropophagy and were better off dead or enslaved than they were living in their natural “uncivilized” state. Flesh, flesh everywhere, Nor any morsel to eat...
Ivor and Pauline were lured back to Stroud's bungalow at Staunton, on the pretext of discussing the cash settlement.
He considered inventing some pretext for calling her.
The Nato intervention was illegal (never authorised by the UN), based on a false prospectus (the Rambouillet conference concocted a pretext for attacking Serbia), unnecessary (the possibilities of a peaceful solution had not been exhausted) and incompetently executed (thousands of innocent civilians killed, non-military targets destroyed). Letters: Discredited foreign policy doctrines
Under Stalin's tyranny, the doctrine was employed as a pretext for the persecution and silencing of nonconformist writers.
An economic blockade was imposed on landlocked Nepal, using the pretext that negotiations over the trade treaty between the two countries had reached deadlock. BLOOD AGAINST THE SNOWS: The Tragic Story of Nepal's Royal Dynasty
He came to see me on/under the pretext of asking my advice when he really wanted to borrow money.
It also provides a pretext for lathering government funding on promotions which can only benefit the ruling party.
Under various pretexts he destroyed or drove into exile, within a few years, all the princes of the blood, and others whose influence or station might have endangered the success of his projects, and concentrated in his own hands all the powers of the state; while the khalif, secluded from public view within his palace, was as completely Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844
They had no mandamus to do that, but the pretext was the arrestation of The Insurrection in Paris
He can't recall the man's story but clearly it was a pretext for his accomplice to search the house.
We're the ones who unquestioningly march behind bullies into other countries on fictitious pretexts.
Baloch had few years ago tried to collect funds under the name Balochistan Legal Fund from wealthy Baloch expatriates in the Gulf nations on a pretext that a case would be filed at the International Court of Justice. The News is NowPublic.com - NowPublic.com: The News is Now Public
It's unclear how people reacted to pretexting last year. Times, Sunday Times
When an effort to update the system was first broached, business groups supported it - until, they say, local governments used it as a pretext to raise levies.
According to the good Father's journal, he sensed sin emanating from the ground in and around San Miguel - he singled out the myriad hot springs and the time-honoured tradition of bathing in them, a pretext, said the Father, for people "getting together". Between Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende: Pozos, Atotonilco and Hacienda Taboada
Even the wives and daughters of low tradesmen, who, like shovel-nosed sharks, prey upon the blubber of those uncouth whales of fortune, are infected with the same rage of displaying their importance; and the slightest indisposition serves them for a pretext to insist upon being conveyed to Bath, where they may hobble country-dances and cotillons among lordlings, squires, counsellors, and clergy. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
They wanted a pretext for subduing the region by force.
At one point I pulled her in completely and dismounted on the pretext of tightening a cinch. THE GOLDEN FOOL: BOOK TWO OF THE TAWNY MAN
At one point I pulled her in completely and dismounted on the pretext of tightening a cinch. THE GOLDEN FOOL: BOOK TWO OF THE TAWNY MAN
Nor would it matter if the eight weekends became the pretext for a permanent nationwide change. Times, Sunday Times
The mugging was merely the pretext for heavy-duty flirting between a dishy detective and Keelin, the lovelorn physiotherapist.
The pretext for the refusal was that the defendant may abscond and could threaten key witnesses yet to be called.
Whilst admiring the ‘immense talent’ of Ballard in transforming a vague, banal terrain into a hallucinatory hell — a feat also achieved in Crash — Griset observes that although Concrete Island may be a continuation of the earlier novel, this time the automobile is a mere symbolic pretext for an examination of the flip-side of our ordered, automated, aseptic lifestyle. Ballardian » ‘Content in their little prisons’: J.G. Ballard on ‘The Towers’
What Rwanda teaches is that, really, any pretext for division - even violent division, and slaughter - will do.
On the pretext of seeing if she was home and, if so, getting the scoop firsthand, they drove to Paige's. SUDDENLY
The problem with fact checking in a complex situation, such as vote fraud or war pretext fabrications or CIA name leaking, is that reporters only have so much information, knowledge, and inside connections as well as time and resources. Think Progress » Bolton: My Support ‘Would Probably Be The Kiss of Death’ For Next U.N. Head
If not, we are again using a pretext to cover intervention that is really motivated by another purpose altogether.
Its basic pretext is that narrative is not enough when there is something urgent to say. Times, Sunday Times
In this context, Israel must end the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and withdraw its forces to positions occupied on September 28, 2000, and hold assassinations and the repeated incursions in the territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and immediately halt all settlement activities in the occupied territoried, including the illegal confiscation of land and the expansion of settlements under the pretext of natural growth or any other consideration. CNN Transcript Jun 8, 2002
Nothing that the US has done in Iraq marks a new strategy: not the flimsy pretext used to invade, not the doctrine of ‘preemptive war,’ nor America's unquenched need for empire.
An economic blockade was imposed on landlocked Nepal, using the pretext that negotiations over the trade treaty between the two countries had reached deadlock. BLOOD AGAINST THE SNOWS: The Tragic Story of Nepal's Royal Dynasty
This latest scheme to concoct a pretext for war is a devastating self-exposure of the war camarilla.
Opposition leaders are afraid to give Milosevic the pretext to use more brutality and proclaim martial law or something along those lines.
Under the pretext of preventing terrorism, it will set a precedent for other regimes to follow in America's footsteps and of course it will embolden the US to make forays into other territories.
She'd left Kirsty to her list making or suchlike, and taken Frank upstairs on the pretext of showing him the wedding dress. THE HELLBOUND HEART
But it has become increasingly clear to them that the pretexts for the war were false.
The incident was used as a pretext for intervention in the area.
All Bin Laden's rhetoric is but pretext for his malicious anti - humanity and anti - civilization heretic religion.
The oil fields of Iraq are clearly 'divvied' up among the plotters -- Exxon Mobil, Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil, BP America Inc et al. The common sense interpretation of the undeniable timeline (in the public record) is that Bush and Cheney conspired with their neocon and oil industry 'base' to perpetrate a hoax upon the US -- a 911 pretext -- upon which they would raise the bogus specter of 'terrorism'! Bush tells another bald-faced whopper, claims he has laid the 'foundation of peace'!
I prize highly the advantages of civilization, and the blessings of civil and religious liberty; but never shall a vote of mine be given to encourage unjust invasion and conquest on the pretext of pushing civilization, or to carry the Bible with the sword, so that rapacity may call its crimes the diffusion of Christianity. On the Zulu War
In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines.
Las ceremonias de honores a la bandera siempre son buen pretexto para el relajo de los escuincles y el enojo de los docentes, pero todo ello puede incrementarse si entre los presentes está el inspector de zona. ��Verde? ��Blanco? ��Rojo?
The parodist must both imitate and create incongruity in relation to the pretext, and parody has, contrary to pastiche, traditionally had a comic dimension.
Supreme Court precedent is actually pretty clear, even in the Nevada case, the cops needed at least an reasonable pretext for asking forID. The Volokh Conspiracy » Words I never expected to write
Old calumnies are served up afresh, and every pretext is seized to add to the catalogue. Chris Weigant: America's First Political Sex Scandal: The Reynolds/Hamilton Affair
When taking a text, be careful of the context lest the text becomes the pretext for saying something you want to say. Christianity Today
Earlier, Voronin had demanded an end to what he called the "bacchanalia" of protests, saying: "Challenging the results of the election is no more than a pretext. Top Stories - Google News
His rental car was stopped by police on the pretext that it had a broken tail light.
Any sign of opposition, real or imagined, was the pretext for a massive retaliation.
Back on the mainland, any travelling I did became a pretext for my on-going tiki bar pilgrimage.
On the pretext of seeing if she was home and, if so, getting the scoop firsthand, they drove to Paige's. SUDDENLY
Toward the preservation of your Government and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. Think Progress » Wall Street Republicans Form ‘Action Tank’ To Push Corporate Agenda
Matters, however, reverted to an interregnum, and owing to the repeated adjournment of the elections on one pretext after another, there were no fewer than fourteen interregna. The History of Rome, Vol. II
He came to see me on/under the pretext of asking my advice when he really wanted to borrow money.
This allows to find a pretext for the US-British coalition.
The border dispute was used as a pretext for military intervention.
That long-standing consensus does not dispositively prove that the law is constitutional, but the fact that nobody claimed that FISA was unconstitutional until it was revealed that President Bush has been violating that law, is rather compelling evidence of just how weak and pretextual that claim is. posted by Glenn Greenwald | 10:22 AM links to this post Archive 2006-05-01
The incident was used as a pretext for intervention in the area.
Robin of Redesdale, -- the pretext, a thrave of corn demanded by the The Last of the Barons — Volume 07
And they childishly trifle who make a pretext for their idolatry, in the words dulia and latria, [455] since the Scripture, in general terms, forbids adoration to be transferred to men. Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1
This provided a pretext for the authorities to cancel the elections.
Any pretext for action was a kind of anodyne, and she despatched her maid to the Farlows 'with a note asking if Miss Viner would receive her. The Reef; a novel
He came to see me on/under the pretext of asking my advice when he really wanted to borrow money.
He used his research as a pretext for travelling to Hungary.
A year ago, they came close to that goal when a general strike they organized became the pretext for a brief military coup.
He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.
He had been the victim of 'pretexting'. Times, Sunday Times
Majesty that no other orders may go there -- even though they be the same orders in name, under pretext that they are of another mode of living; for Fray Luis Sotelo endeavored to introduce there the calced friars in the Order of St. Francis, while the people are well contented with the discalced friars. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 18 of 55 1617-1620 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing
The plot, observing the classical unity of time by taking place in a 24-hour period, is the barest of sketches, a pretext for the feelings of sadness, world-weariness, and desperate hope.
A fire-breathing New York City minister denounced the absence of God in the preamble as ‘an omission which no pretext whatever can palliate.’
No constituency should be allowed to have an extraordinarily small electorate on the pretext that it comprises widely dispersed and isolated communities.
They no longer supply pretexts for local bullies to oppress, nor reason for western governments to turn a blind eye.
The border dispute was used as a pretext for military intervention.
No more pretext, no caprice of Court or Cabinet, no cause whatever, unless it involved national dignity or we are denied a positive right, could justify the representatives of this State in consenting to a war with foreign Foreign and Colonial News
Janet was inexorable, and seemed already to have tired of my literary confidence; for whenever I drew near the subject, after evading it as long as she could, she made, under some pretext or other, a bodily retreat to the kitchen or the cockloft, her own peculiar and inviolate domains. The Surgeon's Daughter
Yet inevitably some will remain suspicious that the present crisis will be used as a pretext for introducing legislation which will erode our civil liberties.
On the pretext that the statue was about to be attacked, the army erected a barbed wire fence around the area on May 25 and posted soldiers to guard the edifice.
Grandpa's birthday provides a good pretext for a knees-up but a family reunion can be planned for its own sake. Times, Sunday Times
The usual pretexts for war were used, which resulted in profits for the privileged few.
We find pretexts and excuses to nip through the main room to check on David, bringing him half an orange, a chunk of chocolate, so he knows we're still thinking of him.
They have issued warnings that anyone caught pretexting faces similar legal action. Times, Sunday Times
He left immediately on the pretext that he had a train to catch.
On the pretext that the statue was about to be attacked, the army erected a barbed wire fence around the area on May 25 and posted soldiers to guard the edifice.
Be that as it may, Mr. Gbagbo's rule was marked by a great deal of internal violence, which served as a pretext for his failure to hold a presidential election when his term expired in 2005. Ivory Coast Needs a Dispensable Man
It cannot be used as a pretext for reducing the number of night staff. Times, Sunday Times
Or, perhaps that gentleman was only a pretext, and the young man's experienced eye had read that any attempt to outsit the learned assistant editor was foredoomed to failure. Queed
Significant proportions of us die every year on the flimsiest of pretexts.
On the pretext of having sat on some ice cream, she excused herself and returned wearing a robe of looped taffeta. Cherie Burns: What Makes a Fashion Icon?
The critical thing is that fostering civilized behavior should be a priority up front in the design of our foreign policy, not an afterthought, a sop to bleeding hearts, or a pretext for something else.
Of course such action is always highly debatable and often used as a pretext for something much more sinister. Times, Sunday Times
Various pretexts, excuses, and complications have been invoked over the years, but essentially this is a matter of politically motivated exclusion.
The incident was used as a pretext for intervention in the area.
Defendants can usually win a continuance on the flimsiest of pretexts, and their strategy typically is to delay and delay until the woman gives up the prosecution.
That experience may have provided the pretext for his removal. Times, Sunday Times
He came to see me on/under the pretext of asking my advice when he really wanted to borrow money.
Till the passions of the mind in man and woman are separate and distinct, till the sex of vital animation, denominated soul, be ascertained, on what pretext is woman deprived of those amusements which man is permitted to enjoy? Letter to the Women of England, on the Injustice of Mental Subordination
The aggressor troops marched into the neighbouring country on the pretext of searching for their missing soldier.
Redesdale, -- the pretext, a thrave of corn demanded by the Hospital of The Last of the Barons — Complete
These can be slipped into your luggage quite innocently on the pretext that they're darned useful for keeping camera film dry on canoeing expeditions.
It is for us to ascertain how far the imputation has been a mere pretext to accuse them of idolatry. A Philosophical Dictionary
The number of sickies - time off taken under the pretext of illness - rises with the onset of winter as people find it harder to get out of bed.
Government officials have used concern for real estate value and tourism appeal as pretexts for such abuses.
Some of us are chary of giving every stranger in ping-shot a pretext for striking up a conversation. Digital Signalling
Such were the pretexts behind which the first president and his friends prepared for a carnage which, for causelessness and atrocity, finds few parallels on the page of history. The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2)
He abounded in pretexts; he even sometimes brought contributions; he was persistent and penetrating, he was known as the irrepressible Tarrant. The Bostonians, Vol. I (of II)
Both are suspected of bringing people in on the false pretext that they will get jobs as religious workers. The Sun
To have them banning us from the activities we love, on the pretext that stopping us will somehow protect less careful people, is a misuse of power - and one that cannot possibly work.
Both these bills use the pretext of real traumas to circumscribe freedom of opinion.

How To Use Pretext In A Sentence

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