Etymology From Latin praetextum (“an ornament, etc., wrought in front, a pretense”), neuter of praetextus, past participle of praetexere (“to weave before, fringe or border, allege”).
1
A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.
The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.
[T]hey would ſay [...] that I had quarrell'd / My brother purpoſely, thereby to finde / An apt pretext, to baniſh them my houſe.1598, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man in His Humour. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 21:
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"After all," said the Chevalier, "these portraits—Madame de I'Hôpital's fortune-telling—the pleasure we take in a lover or a physician—may all be referred to the same cause,—we do so enjoy talking about ourselves; and yet we feel some sort of excuse necessary. It must be admitted, that we are ready in pretexts."1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 69:
On every kind of pretext she would run away from work [...]1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection.1996, Jacques Gernet, translated by J. R. Foster and Charles Hartman, A History of Chinese Civilization, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 580:
When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘New Kid on the Block’ [season 4, episode 8; originally aired 12 November 1992]”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2020:
Etymology From Latin praetextum (“an ornament, etc., wrought in front, a pretense”), neuter of praetextus, past participle of praetexere (“to weave before, fringe or border, allege”).
1
To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.
The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.
[…] the something in the air of these establishments; the vibration of the vast, strange life of the town; the influence of the types, the performers, concocting their messages; the little prompt Paris women arranging, pretexting goodness knew what, driving the dreadful needle-pointed public pen at the dreadful sand-strewn public table[…]1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC:
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Not all the surviving veteran chiefs would actually fight. Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.1970 August 12 [1969 January 15], John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 261: