would-be

[ woo d-bee ]

/ ˈwʊdˌbi /

wishing or pretending to be: a would-be wit.

intended to be: a would-be kindness.

a person who wishes or pretends to be something: Opera singers and would-bes should practice at least four hours a day.

Origin of would-be

1250–1300; Middle English (adj.)

But the current pontiff, for reasons one might fully understand, declined to meet the would-be papal assassin.

Pope-Shooter Ali Agca’s Very Weird Vatican Visit |Barbie Latza Nadeau |December 29, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
The would-be pope killer loves to be in front of the cameras, and the press in Italy is happy to oblige.

Pope-Shooter Ali Agca’s Very Weird Vatican Visit |Barbie Latza Nadeau |December 29, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Siding with Obama on anything, no matter how sensical, is a risky move for a would-be Republican presidential candidate.

The Rand-Rubio Catfight Over Cuba |Olivia Nuzzi |December 19, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
First, there are plenty of would-be gurus out there, especially in India.

Is India’s Fallen ‘God-Man’ So Different From a Megachurch Pastor? |Jay Michaelson |November 21, 2014 |DAILY BEAST

This Tuesday, a bunch of vampires and would-be superheroes will knock on our doors and ask us to reward them.

Election Day Is Scarier Than Halloween |P. J. O’Rourke |November 1, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Then he simply mounted a tree, and with revolver cocked, awaited his would-be intruder.

The Hunted Outlaw |Anonymous
But poor blind humans, groping after would-be ideals, seek the complicated, mistaking it to be the artistic.

The Feasts of Autolycus |Elizabeth Robins Pennell
He is a kind of would-be dandy, and a complete Radical of the worst and lowest sort.

Memoirs of the Duchesse de Dino v.1/3, 1831-1835 |Dorothy Duchesse de Dino
But in order to prevent her being attacked on the sea by would-be rescuers she was ordered to be convoyed by the Revenue cutters.

King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 |E. Keble Chatterton
After a brief, terrible struggle, the would-be fugitives were borne down and trodden underfoot.

In the Morning of Time |Charles G. D. Roberts

would-be

usually derogatory wanting or professing to be a would-be politician

intended to be would-be generosity

derogatory a person who wants or professes to be something that he is not

Indian the person to whom one is is engaged to be married; fiancé or fiancée