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in mind; distrustful. Chaucer. Man, without the protection of a superior Being, . . . is uncertain of everything that he hopes for. Tillotson.

In an uncertain manner.

The quality or state of being uncertain.

Depending on some uncertain contingency; as, an aleatory contract. Bouvier.

Capable of being altered. Our condition in this world is mutable and uncertain, alterable by a thousand accidents. Rogers.

The quality or state of being ambiguous; doubtfulness or uncertainty, particularly as to the signification of language, arising from its admitting of more than one meaning; an equivocal word or expression. No shadow of ambiguity can rest upon the course to be pursued. I. Taylor. The words are of single signification, w…

Doubtful or uncertain, particularly in respect to signification; capable of being understood in either of two or more possible senses; equivocal; as, an ambiguous course; an ambiguous expression. What have been thy answers What but dark, Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding Milton.

A phrase, discourse, or proposition, susceptible of two interpretations; and hence, of uncertain meaning. It differs from equivocation, which arises from the twofold sense of a single term.

Doubt; uncertainty. [Obs.] Shelford.

In an anxious manner; with painful uncertainty; solicitously.

t state, as help shall never find thee. Rowe. So as, so that. [Obs.] The relations are so uncertain as they require a great deal of examination. Bacon.

The battle between the frogs and mice; -- a Greek parody on the Iliad, of uncertain authorship.

and have often even blundered in making my bow. Goldsmith. Yet knows not how to find the uncertain place, And blunders on, and staggers every pace. Dryden. To blunder on. (a) To continue blundering. (b) To find or reach as if by an accident involving more or less stupidity, -- applied to something desirable; as, to bl…

To render obscure by making the form or outline of confused and uncertain, as by soiling; to smear; to make indistinct and confused; as, to blur manuscript by handling it while damp; to blur the impression of a woodcut by an excess of ink. But time hath nothing blurred those lines of favor Which then he wore. Shak.…

substance, obtained from brain and nerve tissue by extraction with boiling alcohol. It is uncertain whether it exists as such in nerve tissue, or is a product of the decomposition of some more complex substance.

ting; sure to happen; inevitable. Virtue that directs our ways Through certain dangers to uncertain praise. Dryden. Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all. Shak.

nt; something that befalls, as the result of unknown or unconsidered forces; the issue of uncertain conditions; an event not calculated upon; an unexpected occurrence; a happening; accident; fortuity; casualty. It was a chance that happened to us. 1 Sam. vi. 9. The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts, And wins (O sha…

Full of change; mutable; inconstant; fickle; uncertain. Pope. His course had been changeful. Motley. -- Change"ful*ly, adv. -- Change"ful*ness, n.

A costly cloth, of uncertain material, used in the Middle Ages. [Obs.] [Written also checklaton, chekelatoun.] His robe was of ciclatoun, That coste many a Jane. Chaucer.

To shake or agitate. "Concussed with uncertainty." Daniel.