PRESUME • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Presume

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/prɪzˈum/ Listen

verb

Presume v. t. (past & past part. presumed; pres. part. presuming)

To assume or take beforehand; esp., to do or undertake without leave or authority previously obtained. "Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner?" "Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve."

To take or suppose to be true, or entitled to belief, without examination or proof, or on the strength of probability; to take for granted; to infer; to suppose. "Every man is to be presumed innocent till he is proved to be guilty." "What rests but that the mortal sentence pass,... Which he presumes already vain and void, Because not yet inflicted?"

Presume v. i.

To suppose or assume something to be, or to be true, on grounds deemed valid, though not amounting to proof; to believe by anticipation; to infer; as, we may presume too far.

To venture, go, or act, by an assumption of leave or authority not granted; to go beyond what is warranted by the circumstances of the case; to venture beyond license; to take liberties; often with on or upon before the ground of confidence. "Do not presume too much upon my love." "This man presumes upon his parts."

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Etymology of 'Presume'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Presume" Quotes from Famous Books

... I know not, for I had fallen into a train of thought so deep that I was utterly unconscious of everything around me, when I was suddenly aroused from my reverie by the quick dash of oars, and by a volley of some seven barrels discharged in quick succession. As I looked up with an air, I presume somewhat bewildered, I heard the loud and bellowing laugh of Tom and saw the whole of our stout company gliding up in two boats, the skiff and the canoe, toward the landing place, perhaps a hundred yards from the ...

— Warwick Woodlands - Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago • Henry William Herbert (AKA Frank Forester)

... presume he is without a son," said the priest as if to himself, and stirred the surmise into his rice with the two long wooden ...

— The Dragon Painter • Mary McNeil Fenollosa

... said to be exactly alike) the many dissimilar varieties of the C. Libani have been derived; the probability of this, the Cedar of Algiers, and of the Himalayas (Deodar) being all forms of one species, is greatly increased. We cannot presume to judge from the few cedars which still remain, what the habit and appearance of the tree may have been, when it covered the slopes of Libanus, and seeing how very variable Coniferae are in habit, we may assume that ...

— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... dangerous and unlawful practice, prohibit and discharged by several laws and acts of parliament, under high and great pains: and that notwithstanding thereof, diverse disaffected and seditious persons, under the specious but false pretences of religion and religious exercises, presume to make, and be present at conventicles and unwarrantable meetings and conventions of the subjects, which are the ordinary seminaries of separation and rebellion, tending to the prejudice of the public worship of God in the churches, to the scandal of the reformed religion, ...

— The Covenants And The Covenanters - Covenants, Sermons, and Documents of the Covenanted Reformation • Various

... may presume to analyze the anguish of your tortured heart as you throw yourself, in such abandonment of grief, on the tomb of your lost parent? The luxuriant grass, swaying to and fro in the chill October blast, well-nigh concealed the bent and drooping form, as she knelt ...

— Inez - A Tale of the Alamo • Augusta J. Evans

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