Word.ws English Dictionary

public pretenders

public pretenders is the plural of public pretender.

Meaning of public pretender

Noun

public pretender (plural public pretenders)

  1. (derogatory, slang) A public defender, viewed as inadequate.
    • They tell me I'm due a fair trial, but they give me a public defender (or should I say public pretender?) that has four times his normal case load. So no matter how I feel or what I think, I'm forced to put all my faith in this public pretender and hope he hasn't sold me out too badly.1991 February 8, William Raspberry, quoting Mansuel Lee Union [inmate], “In another war, a front line tale from a despairing drug abuser”, in Milton Hoffman, editor, The Standard-Star, page 16

Questions about public pretenders

What is public pretenders the plural of?
Public pretenders is the plural of public pretender.

Words near public pretenders in the dictionary

  1. public place
  2. public places
  3. public policies
  4. public policy
  5. public pretender
  6. public pretenders
  7. public private partnership
  8. public private partnerships
  9. public properties
  10. public property
  11. public prosecutor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: public pretenders (page history and authors); public pretender (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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