SPECULATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Speculate

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/spˈɛkjəlˌeɪt/ Listen

Speculate

verb

(past & past part. speculated; pres. part. speculating)

To believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds. Synonyms: conjecture, hypothecate, hypothesise, hypothesize, suppose, theorise, theorize.

Talk over conjecturally, or review in an idle or casual way and with an element of doubt or without sufficient reason to reach a conclusion.

Reflect deeply on a subject. Synonyms: chew over, contemplate, excogitate, meditate, mull, mull over, muse, ponder, reflect, ruminate, think over. "Philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years" , "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate"

Invest at a risk. Synonym: job.

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"Speculate" Quotes from Famous Books

... I've looked at it in that light exactly," he answered. "I suspect I'm not very good at generalising my own relations to others, though I like well enough to speculate in the abstract. But don't you think Mr. Peck has overlooked one important fact in his theory? What about the people who have grown rich from being poor, as most Americans have? They have the same experiences, and why can't they sympathise with ...

— Annie Kilburn - A Novel • W. D. Howells

... machine. From the mill we could see other objects of deep interest. These were, the vessels from St. Michael's, on their way to Baltimore. It was a source of much amusement to view the flowing sails and complicated rigging, as the little crafts dashed by, and to speculate upon Baltimore, as to the kind and quality of the place. With so many sources of interest around me, the reader may be prepared to learn that I began to think very highly of Col. L.'s plantation. It was just a place to my boyish taste. There were fish to be caught ...

— My Bondage and My Freedom • Frederick Douglass

... he would speculate with it; and thereby take the chance of doubling the capital in a few ...

— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens

... the words of Bacon, that "the prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason, as to the will of man;" and that therefore it became him humbly to contemplate what God has done, rather than to speculate as to what he might have done. In nothing, however, has he so monstrously blundered, as in hinting, that if an event is natural, therefore Providence is out of the question in effecting it; and that, on the other hand, if it is not natural, therefore even a benevolent Providence, that ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... ancient city with her kindly drapery of foliage and flowers, so that the crumbling masses of tawny brick that we come across in our rambles are all swathed in garlands of clematis, myrtle, honey-suckle and coronella. It is a delight to speculate upon the original use and appearance of these shapeless blocks of creeper-clad masonry, which attract the eye on all sides amidst the vineyards and orange groves, where the peasants delving in the rich soil frequently alight upon treasures of the ...

— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan

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