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Definition of Surmise
1. Verb. Infer from incomplete evidence.
2. Noun. A message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence.
Generic synonyms: Opinion, View
Specialized synonyms: Divination
Derivative terms: Conjectural, Guess, Guess, Guess, Hypothecate, Hypothesize, Hypothetical, Speculate, Suppose, Suppositional, Suppositious, Supposititious
3. Verb. Imagine to be the case or true or probable. "I surmised that the butler did it"
Definition of Surmise
1. n. A thought, imagination, or conjecture, which is based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess; as, the surmisses of jealousy or of envy.
2. v. t. To imagine without certain knowledge; to infer on slight grounds; to suppose, conjecture, or suspect; to guess.
Definition of Surmise
1. Noun. Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess; as, surmises of jealousy or of envy. ¹
2. Noun. Reflection; thought; posit. ¹
3. Verb. To conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Surmise
1. to infer with little evidence [v -MISED, -MISING, -MISES]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Surmise
Literary usage of Surmise
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language by William Dwight Whitney (1891)
"Forced, too, to turn unwilling ear To each surmise of hope or fear. ... Being from
the feeling of her own grief brought By deep surmise of others' detriment ..."
2. Journal by Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain) (1875)
"The mode in which the recesses for the finger and thumb may have been formed has
exercised much ingenious surmise. When now we pass from this light to very ..."
3. The History of the Norman Conquest of England: Its Causes and Its Results by Edward Augustus Freeman (1877)
"Another, and a far worse, insinuation against the great surmise Earl ...
That uncharitable surmise was reserved for an illustrious writer of our own 1 See ..."
4. South Eastern Reporter by West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, West Publishing Company, South Carolina Supreme Court (1911)
"Authority in an adjuster to deal with them must rest upon more than mere surmise,
suspicion, or slight inference. O'.i W. Va. 233) HOFFMAN т. SHOEMAKER. ..."
5. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1853)
"... retreat with every appearance of discomfiture, quite satisfied him of the
correctness of his surmise. Accordingly, his hostility towards Lady Lee was ..."
6. Southern Literary Messenger by Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Computer Science (1844)
"But being a bachelor, we, of course, do not answer for the accuracy of this
surmise, in a matter so mysterious to the uninitiated. LINES. ..."
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