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spicion; 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.

One who surmises.

A surmise previously formed. Shak.

An opinion, or judgment, formed on defective or presumptive evidence; probable inference; surmise; guess; suspicion. He [Herodotus] would thus have corrected his first loose conjecture by a real study of nature. Whewell. Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm. Milton.

Empty; frivolous. [A Shakespearean word only once used.] Such exsufflicate and blown surmises. Shak. (Oth. iii. 3, 182).

idence or grounds; an attempt to hit upon the truth by a random judgment; a conjecture; a surmise. A poet must confess His art 's like physic -- but a happy guess. Dryden.

To derive by deduction or by induction; to conclude or surmise from facts or premises; to accept or derive, as a consequence, conclusion, or probability; to imply; as, I inferred his determination from his silence. To infer is nothing but by virtue of one proposition laid down as true, to draw in another as true. Locke…

To forebode as near, or likely to occur; to surmise. By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust Ensuing dangers. Shak.

That which is presupposed; a previous supposition or surmise.

cruelty. All his rigor is turned to grief and pity. Denham. If I shall be condemn'd Upon surmises, . . . I tell you 'T is rigor and not law. Shak.

That which is supposed; hypothesis; conjecture; surmise; opinion or belief without sufficient evidence. This is only an infallibility upon supposition that if a thing be true, it is imposible to be false. Tillotson. He means are in supposition. Shak.

Capable of being surmised; as, a surmisable result.

Surmise. [R.] Milton.

from Surmise, v.

existence of, without proof, and often upon weak evidence or no evidence; to mistrust; to surmise; -- commonly used regarding something unfavorable, hurtful, or wrong; as, to suspect the presence of disease. Nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and therefore men should remedy suspicion by produci…