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What is "vague"

Crossword clues for vague

vague
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
vague
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a vague hint (=one that is not specific enough to understand)
▪ In his article, he gave only vague hints as to what he had actually done.
a vague impression (=not very clear)
▪ Dave only had a vague impression of the man who had attacked him.
a vague memory (=not clear)
▪ I have a vague memory of visiting them when I was small.
a vague notion (=an unclear idea)
▪ He had only a vague notion of what might happen next.
a vague promise (=not definite)
▪ Larry made some vague promises to leave his wife.
a vague/dim outline (=difficult to see)
▪ I could just make out a vague outline of a barn.
a vague/slight sense of sth (=not very strong)
▪ There was a slight sense of embarrassment.
an ambiguous/vague concept (=one that is not clear or is hard to define)
▪ Creativity is an ambiguous concept.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
deliberately
▪ There had been a deliberately vague telephone call.
▪ But they are deliberately vague because there are great problems with the dream of a tax form that fits on to a postcard.
▪ The language of these guides is often deliberately vague, to accommodate different approaches to a subject.
only
▪ In most cases, however, such well-defined features do not remain and only vague areas of earthworks are visible.
▪ These are hard questions with only vague answers.
rather
▪ So, as well as being probably infinite in length, the list of conditional observation statements was probably rather vague in content.
▪ Both were rather vague about details.
▪ What we have are some rather vague hints in later sources.
▪ In particular, the positions of each gear are rather vague and more-than-average effort is needed to shift from one to another.
▪ None of these writers looks at housework satisfaction; the notion of feminine domesticity is undefined and usually rather vague.
▪ This line of thought seems to be promising, but it is rather vague.
▪ Now I come to think of it, she was rather vague regarding his exact position with the company.
▪ He was rather vague about that, so my Hon. Friend asked him more questions.
so
▪ Of course, the mortgage market today is neither so generous nor so vague.
▪ His principles are so vague that even his intimates seem unable to put them into words.
▪ How on earth could she be so vague about some one he loved, some one she loved, in spite of Sheila Howarth.
▪ Here was the man who could answer all those questions Leila was so vague about.
▪ Many of their propositions seem to critics to be so vague that they are almost tautologous.
▪ It comforted him to have some definite complaint against her; everything else he felt was so vague and somehow shameful.
somewhat
▪ However, the notion of service development remains somewhat vague.
▪ This approach, though somewhat vague, is none the less important.
▪ The definition had been left somewhat vague in the legislation, though it was intended to embrace all matters relevant.
▪ The early history of madeira wine is somewhat vague.
▪ Even Fielding seems somewhat vague on the question.
▪ This role was initially left somewhat vague until Anthony Coburn advanced the suggestion she should be the Doctor's granddaughter.
▪ Their intentions were oblique and somewhat vague, but Klein already had a good idea about the subject to be discussed.
too
▪ Self-actualisation is too vague a concept to usefully inform managers. 5.
▪ Critics say the ratings are too vague and are inconsistently applied.
▪ Guidelines that are too vague are not guidelines at all.
▪ This might be a place to start, but for our purposes it is too vague.
▪ Sorry about this, Mr Bence, but do you not agree that sometimes your answers are just too vague?
▪ Its regulations must be reasonable and not too vague.
▪ Greenpeace has described the guidelines' description of sustainable management as too vague.
▪ Somehow she seemed too gentle, too vague to perpetrate such a brutal crime.
very
▪ To begin with, that is a very vague concept.
▪ He thought of her being somewhere very vague, in a room with curtains, never moving from the chair.
▪ Mrs T also tried to work with her, but found her very vague.
▪ I could make out the very vague shapes of trees in the starlight.
▪ Indeed, he had been very vague about his student activities, describing himself as a mature student in marketing studies.
▪ Herbert Cranko, like his son, was often very vague about dates.
▪ My memory gets very vague here.
▪ At present, as indicated, central policy is often very vague and control over detail too meticulous.
■ NOUN
concept
▪ To begin with, that is a very vague concept.
▪ Deviance Deviance is a much wider and more vague concept than is crime, and is therefore less easy to define.
feeling
▪ I had a vague feeling he'd been an electrician.
▪ Instead, I was a pliable, compliant inhabitant of a world of vague feelings and limited comprehension.
▪ In the peculiar circumstances of the 1930s vague feelings of unrest with the Party crystallized into something more concrete.
▪ He smiles slightly at the vague feeling of hope he now feels.
hint
▪ The brain drifts back to full consciousness now that there is a vague hint of light spreading across the eastern sky.
▪ What we have are some rather vague hints in later sources.
▪ Homemade pizzas often lack even a vague hint of authenticity.
▪ Vincent had up to then only given vague hints about his relationship with Sien.
idea
▪ But it was a vague idea, little more, Neville remembers, than an inchoate impulse.
▪ They have only a vague idea about the unique culture around them.
▪ They had a vague idea where the place was.
▪ She had only a vague idea of how money was to be attracted.
▪ For example, two individuals enter marriage with a vague idea about the roles of husband and wife.
▪ You saw that logo, and you had a vague idea of what the sound and the content were going to be.
▪ I had only a vague idea where the circle was, but nevertheless set off towards it.
▪ Mary had some vague idea that Adam's parents might suspect he was down here and come to see him.
impression
▪ I had a vague impression of their father but he had spent most of the time with his head in his hands.
▪ Several of them have a vague impression of a coin-like disc near the base.
▪ Overall Engels seems to go much further in this enthusiasm for Morgan than the generally vague impression we get from Marx.
▪ He had the vague impression that the face was of an oriental and was beautiful in a strange way.
memory
▪ She had vague memories, only, to build on.
▪ He had a vague memory of that point in his life when a year was a long time.
▪ He had vague memories of a brother who apparently did not exist any more.
▪ I've a vague memory of a plump wee lass at a cousin's wedding three or four years back.
notion
▪ She had no paper qualifications, no special skills and only a vague notion that she wanted to work with children.
▪ Most of us maintain vague notions of justice, but its precise meaning escapes us until we are deprived of it.
▪ In which case a researcher's task is to translate this rather abstract and vague notion into some operational form.
▪ He must have harbored the vague notion that I could reassure him.
▪ Gradually vague notions of a career in journalism were forming in my head.
▪ He finds himself evaluated by the correspondingly vague notion of competence.
▪ At least the first time, she'd only a vague notion of what might lie ahead.
▪ He'd only a vague notion of what was going to happen after this.
promise
▪ The politicians made vague promises about independence.
sense
▪ In this vague sense animals likewise choose, and are aware and intelligent by our definitions.
▪ So too did Communism, in the vague sense of economic and social equality.
▪ So what was this vague sense of excitement that seemed to be stirring within her?
▪ I too have a vague sense that something is wrong because Beate never mentions her husband, Uldis, when we talk.
▪ The vague sense of depression that had settled over her in the library began to slip away.
▪ There was a vague sense of anticlimax mingled with her vast feeling of freedom.
shape
▪ It still burned with a harsh, blinding glare and through it she could see vague shapes, presumably the others.
▪ There was a mountain pass, vague shapes of hills beside the highway.
▪ Much of the room was reflected in a silvered one-way window behind which a vague shape loomed.
▪ I could make out the very vague shapes of trees in the starlight.
▪ I rubbed a patch clear and looked out hopefully; saw stone walls, the vague shapes of silver birch and larch.
▪ I could see a vague shape behind it.
▪ He paused at the bedroom door but the vague shape amid the bedclothes did not speak or stir.
way
▪ They are in a vague way in debt to society or the state.
▪ Loewenthal knew that the San Francisco Chronicle was, in a vague way, on to the same story.
▪ In a vague way, I thought, he had reminded me of Derry Welfram.
▪ You must pardon me, by the way, for speaking to you in this vague way.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ vague promises of support
▪ a vague smile
▪ Dave's instructions were rather vague.
▪ He was rather vague about the reasons why he never finished school.
▪ I've only got a vague idea of what he wants for this project.
▪ I had heard vague rumours that they were getting married.
▪ I only had a vague idea of where the place was.
▪ Officials were vague about the number of weapons that were uncovered.
▪ The doctor's vague explanations only increased Clara's fears.
▪ There have been vague rumours of a coup.
▪ There were vague shapes of hills in the distance.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A Wellesley College spokeswoman was spectacularly vague.
▪ Its regulations must be reasonable and not too vague.
▪ None of these writers looks at housework satisfaction; the notion of feminine domesticity is undefined and usually rather vague.
▪ She floated near but outside her own body, feeling vague and intense at the same time.
▪ They stood, she thought, the quintessential family, looking out from their sanctuary into the vague but hopeful unknown.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vague

Vague \Vague\ (v[=a]g), a. [Compar. Vaguer (v[=a]g"[~e]r); superl. Vaguest.] [F. vague, or L. vagus. See Vague, v. i.]

  1. Wandering; vagrant; vagabond. [Archaic] ``To set upon the vague villains.''
    --Hayward.

    She danced along with vague, regardless eyes.
    --Keats.

  2. Unsettled; unfixed; undetermined; indefinite; ambiguous; as, a vague idea; a vague proposition.

    This faith is neither a mere fantasy of future glory, nor a vague ebullition of feeling.
    --I. Taylor.

    The poet turned away, and gave himself up to a sort of vague revery, which he called thought.
    --Hawthorne.

  3. Proceeding from no known authority; unauthenticated; uncertain; flying; as, a vague report.

    Some legend strange and vague.
    --Longfellow.

    Vague year. See Sothiac year, under Sothiac.

    Syn: Unsettled; indefinite; unfixed; ill-defined; ambiguous; hazy; loose; lax; uncertain.

Vague

Vague \Vague\, n. [Cf. F. vague.] An indefinite expanse. [R.]

The gray vague of unsympathizing sea.
--Lowell.

Vague

Vague \Vague\, v. i. [F. vaguer, L. vagari, fr. vagus roaming.] To wander; to roam; to stray. [Obs.] ``[The soul] doth vague and wander.''
--Holland.

Vague

Vague \Vague\, n. A wandering; a vagary. [Obs.]
--Holinshed.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
vague

"uncertain as to specifics," 1540s, from Middle French vague "empty, vacant; wild, uncultivated; wandering" (13c.), from Latin vagus "strolling, wandering, rambling," figuratively "vacillating, uncertain," of unknown origin. Related: Vagueness.

Wiktionary
vague

  1. 1 Not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms. 2 Not having a precise meaning. 3 Not clearly defined, grasped, or understood; indistinct; slight. 4 Not clearly felt or sensed; somewhat subconscious. 5 Not thinking or expressing one’s thoughts clearly or precisely. 6 Lacking expression; vacant. 7 Not sharply outlined; hazy. n. 1 (context obsolete English) A wandering; a vagary. 2 An indefinite expanse. v

  2. To wander; to roam; to stray.

WordNet
vague

  1. adj. not clearly understood or expressed; "an obscure turn of phrase"; "an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure battles of his own spirit"-Anatole Broyard; "their descriptions of human behavior become vague, dull, and unclear"- P.A.Sorokin; "vague...forms of speech...have so long passed for mysteries of science"- John Locke [syn: obscure]

  2. not precisely limited, determined, or distinguished; "an undefined term"; "undefined authority"; "some undefined sense of excitement"; "vague feelings of sadness"; "a vague uneasiness" [syn: undefined] [ant: defined]

  3. lacking clarity or distinctness; "a dim figure in the distance"; "only a faint recollection"; "shadowy figures in the gloom"; "saw a vague outline of a building through the fog"; "a few wispy memories of childhood" [syn: dim, faint, shadowy, wispy]

Wikipedia
Vague (song)

"Vague" is the fifth single of the alternative metal band Orgy. It was released on October 12, 2004.

Vague (comics)
  1. Redirect List of Marvel Comics characters: V#Vague
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "vague".

Then all the satisfaction she had derived from what she had heard Madame Bourdieu say departed, and she went off furious and ashamed, as if soiled and threatened by all the vague abominations which she had for some time felt around her, without knowing, however, whence came the little chill which made her shudder as with dread.

I fear I will dissolve in light, grow addled and vague, like Czerny, or foolishly evangelical like Ristelli.

He checked the indexes and methodically began reading everything he could find about agnosia and amaurosis, with the uncomfortable impression of being an intruder in a field beyond his competence, the mysterious terrain of neurosurgery, about which he only had the vaguest notion.

The best authorities seem to think that though Confucianism is in one sense agnosticism, it does not directly contradict the old theism, precisely because it has become a rather vague theism.

Feeling a vague desire again, she put her hand between her legs, aimlessly, still walking.

The alchemist looked suitably vague, and seemed reluctant to discuss it.

During the night the amado fell out of the worn-out grooves with a crash, knocking down the shoji, which fell on me, and rousing Ito, who rushed into my room half-asleep, with a vague vision of bloodthirsty Ainos in his mind.

He was pulled out of bed and into empty space, and for a moment he heard a rhythmic roaring and saw the twilight amorphousness of the vague abysses seething around him.

The voices were squeaky and vague and loud, using a gabbling argot of transposed syllables and made-up words I could not follow much of it.

Little more was left when Constantine ascended the throne, than a vague and imperfect tradition, that the Patricians had once been the first of the Romans.

The despatch is so vague that there is no means here of ascertaining whether or not the execution of sentence of one or more of them may not already have been ordered.

Saxon said, with vague asperity, resenting conditions she was just beginning to grasp.

He gazes balefully at the mess, waving his hands in vague curves like a sculptor seeing a shape in a rough block of marble.

About the same time, the restorer of Britain and Africa, on a vague suspicion that his name and services were superior to the rank of a subject, was ignominiously beheaded at Carthage.

Its leadership was inexperienced, and its ideology was too vague to have any immediate relevance to the deep-seated problems besetting Iraq in the early 1960s.