Etymology : Middle French or Latin; Middle French inferer, from Latin inferre, literally, to carry or bring into, from in- + ferre to carry; more at BEAR
Pronunciation : in-'f&r
Function : verb
Date : 1528
1. derive, conclude; guess, surmise; hint. infer\in*fer"\ , v. t. [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. inférer. see:
1 st bear.].
2. to bring on; to induce; to occasion. [obs.] arvey.
3. to offer, as violence. [obs.].
4. 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.
5. 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; to imply; 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. such opportunities always infer obligations.
6. 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. t. more. this doth infer the zeal i had to see:
him.infer v.
7. reason by deduction; establish by deduction [syn: deduce, deduct, derive].
8. draw from specific cases for more general cases [syn: generalize, generalise, extrapolate].
9. conclude by reasoning; in logic [syn: deduce].
10. guess correctly; solve by guessing; "he guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize" [syn: guess].
11. believe to be the case; "i understand you have no previous experience?" [syn: understand, gather].
12. To bring on; to induce; to occasion.
13. To offer, as violence.
14. To bring forward, or employ as an argument; to adduce; to allege; to offer.
15. 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; to imply; as, I inferred his determination from his silence.
16. To show; to manifest; to prove.
17. 1. If you infer that something is the case, you decide that it is true on the basis of information that you already have. I inferred from what she said that you have not been well By measuring the motion of the galaxies in a cluster, astronomers can infer the cluster's mass. = deduce.
18. Some people use infer to mean `imply', but many people consider this use to be incorrect. The police inferred that they found her behaviour rather suspicious. to form an opinion that something is probably true because of information that you have infer sth from sth (inferre, from ferre ).