suppose
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /səˈpəʊz/
ipa: [səˈpʰəʊz]
ipa: /səˈpoʊz/
ipa: [səˈpʰoʊz]
ipa: /ˈspəʊz/
ipa: [ˈspəʊz]
ipa: /ˈspoʊz/
ipa: [ˈspoʊz]
rhymes: -əʊz
Forms: form: supposes
form: supposing
form: supposed
form: supposed
Etymology: From Middle English supposen, borrowed from Old French supposer, equivalent to prefix sub- (“under”) + poser (“to place”); corresponding in meaning to Latin supponere (“to put under, to substitute, falsify, counterfeit”), suppositum. See pose.
Senses: examples: text: I suppose we all agree that this is the best solution.
text: I won't be back before midday, I don't suppose.
text: I don't suppose you could lend me a euro, could you?
text: We're a place setting short, there'll be four of us - always supposing your sis really comes.
text: Mum, can go to the park yet? ~ Suppose you did your homework first.
text: ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: To take for granted; to conclude, with less than absolute supporting data; to believe.
examples: text: Suppose that A implies B and B implies C. Then A implies C.
text: Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Just what is supposed to be wrong with the pursuit of fame is not always made clear. Plato disapproved of competition for praise on the grounds that it would tempt the great to bend to the will of the crowd. It is hard to argue with that, and social degradation remains a fear.
ref: 2013 September 6, David Cox, “Celebrity rules even Hawking's universe”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 30:
glosses: To theorize or hypothesize.
examples: text: How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: Let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men, the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 13:32:
text: As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
ref: 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To imagine; to believe; to receive as true.
examples: text: [He] keeps you from the honors of a Queene,
Being ſuppoſde his worthleſſe Concubine.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:
glosses: To reckon to be, to account or esteem as.
examples: text: Purpose supposes foresight.
text: One falsehood always supposes another, and renders all you can say suspected.
ref: 1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote:
glosses: To require to exist or to be true; to imply by the laws of thought or of nature.
examples: text: A Water-monster, called the Nickard, does enter by night the chamber, where a woman is brought to bed, and stealeth when they are all sleeping, the new-born child and supposeth another in its place, which child growing up is like a monster and commonly dumb.
ref: 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 30:
text: ... that they when the queen is in child-birth, be present and warily observe lest the la-dies should privily counterfeit the inheritable sex, by supposing some other male, when the true birth is female,[…]
ref: 1726 [1614], John Selden, Joannis Seldeni jurisconsulti Opera omnia, tam edita quam inedita, page 1009:
glosses: To put by fraud in the place of another; to substitute fraudulently.
Synonyms: word: assume (1,2)
word: arread
word: assume
word: fancy
word: conject
word: conjecture
word: daresay
word: dope
word: foreguess
word: go out on a limb
word: guess
word: guesstimate
word: hunch
word: hypothesize
word: hypotheticate
word: imagine
word: infer
word: overhope
word: posit
word: postulate
word: presume
word: reckon
word: speculate
word: suppose
word: surmise
word: suspect
word: take a stab at
word: take for granted
word: take something as read
word: theorize
word: ween
Hypernyms: word: deem
word: have opinion
Hyponyms: word: foredeem
word: grasp at straws
word: prejudge
word: presuppose
Derived terms: word: I don't suppose
word: supposable
word: supposed to
word: supposedly
Related terms: word: supposition