DEMUR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Demur

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/dɪmˈər/ Listen

noun

Demur n. Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple. "All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks.""

verb

Demur v. t.

1.

To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about. (Obs.) "The latter I demur, for in their looks Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears."

2.

To cause delay to; to put off. (Obs.) "He demands a fee, And then demurs me with a vain delay."

Demur v. i. (past & past part. demurred; pres. part. demurring)

1.

To linger; to stay; to tarry. (Obs.) "Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp."

2.

To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair. "Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur."

3.

To scruple or object; to take exception, especially on the basis of scruple or modesty; as, I demur to that statement; they wanted to make him president, but he demurred. "From the popular assertion that he was the smartest man in the world Gell-Mann was not predisposed to demur."

4.

(Law) To interpose a demurrer. See Demurrer, 2.

See images of 'Demur'

Etymology of 'Demur'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Demur" Quotes from Famous Books

... had not received from the gentleman deceased the promised reward for his services as courier, Israel concluded that he might justly use the money for his own. To which opinion surely no charitable judge will demur. Besides, what should he do with the purse, if not use it for his own? It would have been insane to have returned it to the relations. Such mysterious honesty would have but resulted in his arrest as a rebel, or rascal. As for the Squire's clothes, ...

— Israel Potter • Herman Melville

... Cameron had not been well since Wilford left the country, and the physician was fearful that the disease had assumed a consumptive form, Mrs. Cameron wrote, adding that her husband's only anxiety was to see his son again. To this there was no demur, and about the first of December, six months from the time he had sailed, Wilford arrived in Boston, having taken a steamer for that city. His first act was to telegraph for news of his father, receiving a reply that he was better; the alarming symptoms ...

— Family Pride - Or, Purified by Suffering • Mary J. Holmes

... of activity, packed the things of his wife and daughters, and protested that nobody could do it better than he, and that nobody could make so many things go into one box as he could. The last was willingly conceded to him, but a little demur arose as to the excellency of the packing. The ladies asserted that he rumpled their dresses; the Judge asserted that there was no danger on that account, that everything would be found remarkably smooth, and stood zealous and warm in his shirt-sleeves beside the travelling-case, ...

— The Home • Fredrika Bremer

... out afresh; and she grew in strength likewise, first taking a walk in the trim garden and orchard, and by and by being pronounced able to join the other girl scholars of the convent. Only here was the first demur. Her looks did not recover with her health. She remained with a much-seamed neck, and a terrible scar across each cheek, on one side purple, and her eyebrows ...

— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge

... demur to this statement of the possible consequences of the present situation, but he said that all would ...

— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

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