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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
surmise
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
only
▪ One can only surmise that this arrangement was for the programming convenience of the television station which covered the matches.
▪ I could only surmise that she and Lila had met before.
▪ We could only surmise that alternative passages must have been worse.
▪ At this point, Blue can only surmise what the case is not.
▪ So one can only surmise that this rather authoritarian sign is aimed at people whose knuckles scrape the tarmac.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And the first victims were not black, as you might surmise, but white men.
▪ I could only surmise that she and Lila had met before.
▪ Maurice surmised it was from his aunt.
▪ Not more than a week old, Father Poole surmised.
▪ One can only surmise that this arrangement was for the programming convenience of the television station which covered the matches.
▪ Probably helping some official move, he surmised as he became absorbed in the activity.
▪ They are one and all friendly, kind and tolerant - largely I surmise by virtue of my wife and her approachability.
▪ We sat still in the desolate space for several hours before we surmised that evidently we were free to go.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Surmise

Surmise \Sur*mise"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Surmised; p. pr. & vb. n. Surmising.] To imagine without certain knowledge; to infer on slight grounds; to suppose, conjecture, or suspect; to guess.

It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew That what before she but surmised, was true.
--Dryden.

This change was not wrought by altering the form or position of the earth, as was surmised by a very learned man, but by dissolving it.
--Woodward.

Surmise

Surmise \Sur*mise"\, n. [OF. surmise accusation, fr. surmettre, p. p. surmis, to impose, accuse; sur (see Sur-) + mettre to put, set, L. mittere to send. See Mission.]

  1. A thought, imagination, or conjecture, which is based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess; as, the surmisses of jealousy or of envy.

    [We] double honor gain From his surmise proved false.
    --Milton.

    No man ought to be charged with principles he actually disowns, unless his practicies contradict his profession; not upon small surmises.
    --Swift.

  2. Reflection; thought. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

    Syn: Conjecture; supposition; suspicion; doubt.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
surmise

c.1400, in law, "to charge, allege," from Old French surmis, past participle of surmettre "to accuse," from sur- "upon" (see sur- (1)) + mettre "put," from Latin mittere "to send" (see mission). Meaning "to infer conjecturally" is recorded from 1700, from the noun. Related: Surmised; surmising.

surmise

early 15c., legal, "a charge, a formal accusation," from Old French surmise "accusation," noun use of past participle of surmettre (see surmise (v.)). Meaning "inference, guess" is first found in English 1580s.\n\nThen felt I like some watcher of the skies \n
When a new planet swims into his ken;\n
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes \n
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men \n
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— \n
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.\n

\n

[Keats]

\n
Wiktionary
surmise

n. 1 thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess. 2 reflection; thought; posit. vb. To conjecture, to opine or to posit with contestable premises.

WordNet
surmise
  1. n. a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence [syn: guess, conjecture, supposition, surmisal, speculation, hypothesis]

  2. v. infer from incomplete evidence

  3. imagine to be the case or true or probable; "I suspect he is a fugitive"; "I surmised that the butler did it" [syn: suspect]

Usage examples of "surmise".

It had always seemed to Prince Andrew before that he was antipathetic to the Emperor and that the latter disliked his face and personality generally, and in the cold, repellent glance the Emperor gave him, he now found further confirmation of this surmise.

It is tempting to surmise that a culture chooses its most reviled species for ballistics research.

It occurred to me to wonder whether Breedy had been the man with the gun and the retriever, but there was little point in surmising.

Now she would see if her surmise was correct, that Milord only sought to teach a green boy a never-to-be-forgotten lesson.

Doc surmised that the spot overlooked the sea, for the way soon dipped sharply downward, and they could hear the mushy splashing of waves.

Lew Page, he now surmised, was working for Newsome, and he guessed further that these men were responsible in some way for what had happened to Lew Page.

It had become petrified by what means none could surmise nor reduplicate in the imitative sacrifices that occurred on anniversaries of the key event.

Hiraga left, keeping his head on his tatami to hide the gnashing of his few remaining broken teeth, wanting to humble Hiraga, make him sweat, telling him, not sorry at all: oh so sorry, your late whore Koiko was implicated in the plot, so was your trained female assassin and wife-to-be Sumomo who had her head chopped off too, and your shishi supporter Meikin, mama-san to the most important men in Yedo--even Gyokoyama leaders--is not long for this earth because we surmise Yoshi knows all this too.

They imply a rather sparsely settled country, occupied by a comparatively small number of tribes and subtribes, moving from place to place under the influence of various motives, some of which we know, others we can only surmise.

In all this arrangement there was nothing human, and Carter surmised from old tales that he was indeed come to that most dreadful and legendary of all places, the remote and prehistoric monastery wherein dwells uncompanioned the High-Priest Not To Be Described, which wears a yellow silken mask over its face and prays to the Other Gods and their crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

This always seemed strange to me, for pleasant and jovial as she was, I could see nothing in her that could call forth conjecture or intrigued surmise, so healthy and unmysterious a figure did she present.

Royce surmised the besotted vassal was still abovestairs, staring at the nun.

Possibly, as John Quincy surmised, it was because Adams had denied him his chance for military glory, humiliated him at Trenton, and made his army superfluous.

The three options concerned the iceberg Alamo, which Piatakov surmised, based on the information in his files about the Salvation, must still be part of a glacier in Antarctica, as yet unseen by man.

And in their effort to keep themselves from being engulfed in the apostacy of a great leader, the scientists, as by a unanimous chorus, announce that the scientific dogmas which enter more or less essentially into their atheistic conception of the universe, are nothing but surmises!