“pretending”常指“假装、装作(在做/是某事)”,也可作形容词表示“假装的、佯作的”。(更常见的基本形式是动词 pretend。)
/prɪˈtendɪŋ/
I was just pretending to be asleep.
我只是在假装睡着了。
She kept pretending that everything was fine, even as the problems grew more serious.
尽管问题越来越严重,她仍一直装作一切都没事。
源自动词 pretend,来自拉丁语 praetendere,本义有“向前伸展、提出(主张)”之意,后来引申为“声称、佯称”,再发展出“假装”的现代含义。