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guessing - 2 dictionary results

guess

  [ges]
Use guessing in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to arrive at or commit oneself to an opinion about (something) without having sufficient evidence to support the opinion fully: to guess a person's weight.
2. to estimate or conjecture about correctly: to guess what a word means.
3. to think, believe, or suppose: I guess I can get there in time.
–verb (used without object)
4. to form an estimate or conjecture (often fol. by at or about): We guessed at the weight of the package.
5. to estimate or conjecture correctly.
–noun
6. an opinion that one reaches or to which one commits oneself on the basis of probability alone or in the absence of any evidence whatever.
7. the act of forming such an opinion: to take a guess at someone's weight.
—Idiom
8. by guess and by gosh, Northern U.S. using a combination of guesswork and reliance on luck; hit or miss. Also, by guess and by golly.
Origin:
1300–50; (v.) ME gessen, perh. < Scand; cf. Sw, Dan, Norw gissa, MLG gissen, MD gessen, ON geta; (n.) ME gesse, deriv. of the v. See get

Related forms:
guess⋅a⋅ble, adjective
guesser, noun
guess⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
1. hazard. 1, 2, 4. Guess, guess at, conjecture, surmise imply attempting to form an opinion as to the probable. To guess is to risk an opinion regarding something one does not know about, or, wholly or partly by chance, to arrive at the correct answer to a question: to guess the outcome of a game. Guess at implies more haphazard or random guessing: to guess at the solution of a crime. To conjecture is to make inferences in the absence of sufficient evidence to establish certainty: to conjecture the circumstances of the crime. Surmise implies making an intuitive conjecture that may or may not be correct: to surmise the motives that led to it. 3. fancy, imagine. 6. supposition.

Antonyms:
3. know.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To guessing
guess   (gěs)   
v.   guessed, guess·ing, guess·es

v.   tr.
    1. To predict (a result or an event) without sufficient information.
    2. To assume, presume, or assert (a fact) without sufficient information.
  2. To form a correct estimate or conjecture of: guessed the answer.
  3. To suppose; think: I guess he was wrong.
v.   intr.
  1. To make an estimate or conjecture: We could only guess at her motives.
  2. To estimate or conjecture correctly.
n.  
  1. An act or instance of guessing.
  2. A conjecture arrived at by guessing.

[Middle English gessen, probably of Scandinavian origin; see ghend- in Indo-European roots.]
guess'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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