vague
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /veɪɡ/
note: Canada, Upper Midwestern US
ipa: /væɡ/
rhymes: -eɪɡ
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: vaguer
form: vaguest
Etymology: From Middle French vague, from Latin vagus (“uncertain, vague”, literally “wandering, rambling, strolling”).
Senses: examples: text: It follows from what has been said that a vague thought has more likelihood of being true than a precise one. To try and hit an object with a vague thought is like trying to hit the bull's eye with a lump of putty: when the putty reaches the target, it flattens out all over it, and probably covers the bull's eye along with the rest. To try and hit an object with a precise thought is like trying to hit the bull's eye with a bullet. The advantage of the precise thought is that it distinguishes between the bull's eye and the rest of the target.
ref: 1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind:
text: Throughout the first week of his presidency, Dulles and Bissell continued to brief Kennedy on their strategy for Cuba, but the men were vague and their meetings offered little in the way of hard facts.
ref: 2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:
synonyms: word: inarticulate
word: unclear
word: abstruse
word: Chinese
word: dense
word: enigmatic
word: fathomless
word: Greek
word: inapprehensible
word: incognizable
word: incomprehensible
word: ineffable
word: inenubilable
word: inexplicable
word: impenetrable
word: insensible
word: inscrutable
word: insoluble
word: insolvable
word: mysterious
word: nonunderstandable
word: obscure
word: retruse
word: thick
word: undecipherable
word: undiscoverable
word: unexplainable
word: unfathomable
word: ungraspable
word: unintelligible
word: unknowable
word: ununderstandable
glosses: Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms.
examples: text: a vague term of abuse
synonyms: ambiguous
equivocal
glosses: Not having a precise meaning.
examples: text: only a vague notion of what’s needed
text: a vague hint of a thickening waistline
text: I haven’t the vaguest idea.
synonyms: ambiguous
equivocal
indistinct
obscure
glosses: Not clearly defined, grasped, or understood; indistinct; slight.
examples: text: a vague longing
text: ⁠For though my nature rarely yields
⁠To that vague fear implied in death;
⁠Nor shudders at the gulfs beneath,
The howlings from forgotten fields; […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62:
glosses: Not clearly felt or sensed; somewhat subconscious.
examples: text: Waxed-fleshed out-patients / Still vague from accidents, / And characters in long coats / Deep in the litter-baskets […]
ref: 1962, Philip Larkin, Toads Revisited:
synonyms: dazed
glosses: Not thinking or expressing one’s thoughts clearly or precisely.
synonyms: vacant
vacuous
glosses: Lacking expression; vacant.
examples: text: He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
synonyms: word: fuzzy
word: hazy
word: ill-defined
word: dim
word: fuzzy
word: hazy
word: ill-defined
word: ill-marked
word: indefinite
word: indistinct
word: indistinguishable
word: muzzy
word: obscure
word: undefined
word: vague
glosses: Not sharply outlined; hazy.
examples: text: The Lord Gray incourag'd his men to set sharply upon the vague villains
ref: 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI:
text: She danced along with vague, regardless eyes, / Anxious her lips, her breathing quick and short: [...]
ref: 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza VIII, page 87:
synonyms: erratic
roaming
unsettled
vagrant
vagabond
glosses: Wandering; vagrant; vagabond.
Synonyms: word: ambiguous
word: equivocal
word: fuzzy
word: generic
word: gray
word: imperspicuous
word: imprecise
word: indeterminate
word: indefinite
word: indistinct
word: turbid
word: uncertain
word: unclear
word: undefined
word: undefinable
word: vague
word: woolly
Hypernyms: word: incomprehensible
word: lacking
Related terms: word: extravagant
word: gay vague
word: gender-vague
word: noctivagant
word: vagabond
word: vagary
word: vaguely
word: vagueness
word: vagus
word: mysterious