Etymology : Middle English gessen, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse geta to get, guess; more at GET
Pronunciation : ges
Function : verb
Date : 14th century
1. conjecture; supposition; hypothesis. suppose; hypothesize; conjecture. guess\guess\ , v. t. [imp. & p. p. guessed ; p. pr. & vb. n. guessing.] [oe. gessen; akin to dan. gisse, sw. gissa, icel. gizha, d. gissen: cf. dan. giette to guess, icel. geta to get, to guess. probably originally, to try to get, and akin to e. get. see:
get.].
2. to form an opinion concerning, without knowledge or means of knowledge; to judge of at random; to conjecture. first, if thou canst, the harder reason guess.
3. to judge or form an opinion of, from reasons that seem preponderating, but are not decisive. we may then guess how far it was from his design. of ambushed men, whom, by their arms and dress, to be taxallan enemies i guess.
4. to solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly; as, he who guesses the riddle shall have the ring; he has guessed my designs.
5. to hit upon or reproduce by memory. [obs.] tell me their words, as near as thou canst guess them.
6. to think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine; -- followed by an objective clause. not all together; better far, i guess, that we do make our entrance several ways. but in known images of life i guess the labor greater.
7. To form an opinion concerning, without knowledge or means of knowledge; to judge of at random; to conjecture.
8. To judge or form an opinion of, from reasons that seem preponderating, but are not decisive.
9. To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly; as, he who guesses the riddle shall have the ring; he has guessed my designs.
10. To hit upon or reproduce by memory.
11. To think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine; followed by an objective clause.
12. To make a guess or random judgment; to conjecture; with at, about, etc.
13. An opinion as to anything, formed without sufficient or decisive evidence or grounds; an attempt to hit upon the truth by a random judgment; a conjecture; a surmise. an estimate based on little or no information a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize" put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation; "I am guessing that the price of real estate will rise again"; "I cannot pretend to say that you are wrong".
14. 1. If you guess something, you give an answer or provide an opinion which may not be true because you do not have definite knowledge about the matter concerned. The suit was faultless: Wood guessed that he was a very successful publisher or a banker You can only guess at what mental suffering they endure Paula reached for her camera, guessed distance and exposure, and shot two frames Guess what I did for the whole of the first week If she guessed wrong, it meant twice as many meetings the following week.
15. If you guess that something is the case, you correctly form the opinion that it is the case, although you do not have definite knowledge about it. By now you will have guessed that I'm back in Ireland He should have guessed what would happen Someone might have guessed our secret and passed it on.
16. A guess is an attempt to give an answer or provide an opinion which may not be true because you do not have definite knowledge about the matter concerned. My guess is that the chance that these vaccines will work is zero He'd taken her pulse and made a guess at her blood pressure Well, we can hazard a guess at the answer.
17. If you say that something is anyone's guess or anybody's guess, you mean that no-one can be certain about what is really true. Just when this will happen is anyone's guess.
18. vagueness You say at a guess to indicate that what you are saying is only an estimate or what you believe to be true, rather than being a definite fact. At a guess he's been dead for two days.
19. vagueness You say I guess to show that you are slightly uncertain or reluctant about what you are saying. I guess she thought that was pretty smart I guess he's right `I think you're being paranoid.' --- `Yeah. I guess so.'.
20. If someone keeps you guessing, they do not tell you what you want to know. The author's intention is to keep everyone guessing until the bitter end.
21. You say guess what to draw attention to something exciting, surprising, or interesting that you are about to say. Guess what, I just got my first part in a movie.