PREMISE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Premise

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/prˈɛmɪs/ Listen

noun

Premise n. (pl. premises) (Written also, less properly, premiss)

1.

A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition. "The premises observed, Thy will by my performance shall be served."

2.

(Logic) Either of the first two propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is drawn. Note: "All sinners deserve punishment: A B is a sinner." These propositions, which are the premises, being true or admitted, the conclusion follows, that A B deserves punishment. "While the premises stand firm, it is impossible to shake the conclusion."

3.

pl. (Law) Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.

4.

pl. A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts; as, to lease premises; to trespass on another's premises.

verb

Premise v. t. (past & past part. premised; pres. part. premising)

1.

To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously. (Obs.) "The premised flames of the last day." "If venesection and a cathartic be premised."

2.

To set forth beforehand, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows; especially, to lay down premises or first propositions, on which rest the subsequent reasonings. "I premise these particulars that the reader may know that I enter upon it as a very ungrateful task."

Premise v. i. To make a premise; to set forth something as a premise.

See images of 'Premise'

Etymology of 'Premise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Premise" Quotes from Famous Books

... proper to premise that Israel did not make war either on Moab or Ammon. Those nations were descended from Lot, and Moses was forbidden to molest them in possession of the lands which God had given them. Moab might have had peace, and the friendship of Israel, but refused ...

— Sermons on Various Important Subjects • Andrew Lee

... and easily proves that any one who defends him must be the greatest fool on earth. As if any real believer ever thought in this preposterous way, or as if any defender of the legitimacy of men's concrete ways of concluding ever used the abstract and general premise, 'All desires must be fulfilled'! Nevertheless, Mr. McTaggart solemnly and laboriously refutes the syllogism in sections 47 to 57 of the above- cited book. He shows that there is no fixed link in the dictionary between the abstract concepts 'desire,' 'goodness' ...

— The Meaning of Truth • William James

... Mrs. Cochran & Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprize them of their fate? As I hate deception, even where the imagination only is concerned; I will. It is needless to premise, that my table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually covered, is rather more essential; and this shall be ...

— The True George Washington [10th Ed.] • Paul Leicester Ford

... principally urged against the claims of acting as an art that a young person without previous experience or training can make an immediate (and sometimes lasting) effect upon the stage, whereas in the preparation for any other art (even the interpretative arts) years of training are necessary. This premise is full of holes; nevertheless George Moore, and Messrs. Nathan and Sherwin all cling to it. It is true that almost any young girl, moderately gifted with charm or comeliness, may make an instantaneous impression on our stage, especially in the namby-pamby roles which our playwrights ...

— The Merry-Go-Round • Carl Van Vechten

... the wheezing effort with which he made his descent from the two-seated canvas-covered surrey in front of Bob Manning's store, and, with a deftness born of experience, converted the free ends of the lines into hitch straps. That the second premise held true was demonstrated ten seconds later in the unconscious grunt of soliloquy with which he greeted the sight of a wisp of black rag tacked above the knob of the door ...

— Where the Trail Divides • Will Lillibridge

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