 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
infer
verb
1: reason by deduction; establish by deduction [syn: {deduce},
{deduct}, {derive}]
2: draw from specific cases for more general cases [syn: {generalize},
{generalise}, {extrapolate}]
3: conclude by reasoning; in logic [syn: {deduce}]
4: guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right
number of beans in the jar and won the prize" [syn: {guess}]
5: believe to be the case; "I understand you have no previous
experience?" [syn: {understand}]
[also: {inferring}, {inferred}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Infer \In*fer"\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Inferred}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Inferring}.] [L. inferre to bring into, bring forward,
occasion, infer; pref. in- in + ferre to carry, bring: cf. F.
inf['e]rer. See 1 st {Bear}.]
1. To bring on; to induce; to occasion. [Obs.] --Harvey.
2. To offer, as violence. [Obs.] --Spenser.
3. To bring forward, or employ as an argument; to adduce; to
allege; to offer. [Obs.]
Full well hath Clifford played the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force. --Shak.
4. 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; 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.
Such opportunities always infer obligations.
--Atterbury.
5. To show; to manifest; to prove. [Obs.]
The first part is not the proof of the second, but
rather contrariwise, the second inferreth well the
first. --Sir T. More.
This doth infer the zeal I had to see him. --Shak.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
84 Moby Thesaurus words for "infer":
allegorize, allude to, analyze, apply reason, assume, be afraid,
believe, bring to mind, collect, conceive, conclude, connote,
consider, daresay, deduce, deduct, deem, derive, divine, dope,
draw, draw a conclusion, draw an inference, dream, entail, expect,
extract, fancy, feel, fetch, find, gather, generalize, glean,
grant, guess, hint, hypothesize, imagine, implicate, imply, import,
induce, insinuate, intellectualize, intimate, involve, let, let be,
logicalize, logicize, mean, mean to say, opine, philosophize,
point indirectly to, prefigure, presume, presuppose, presurmise,
provide a rationale, provisionally accept, rationalize, reason,
reason that, reckon, repute, say, suggest, suppose, surmise,
suspect, syllogize, synthesize, take, take as proved, take for,
take for granted, take it, take to be, theorize, think, understand,
use reason
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