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Presume   /prɪzˈum/   Listen
Presume

verb
(past & past part. presumed; pres. part. presuming)
1.
Take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof.  Synonyms: assume, take for granted.
2.
Take upon oneself; act presumptuously, without permission.  Synonyms: dare, make bold.
3.
Constitute reasonable evidence for.
4.
Take liberties or act with too much confidence.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Presume" Quotes from Famous Books



... "I wouldn't presume," drawled Stewart, "to offer political opinions to gentlemen of your experience. However, now that you ask me a blunt question, I'm going to reply just as bluntly—but as a business man! I believe that running ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day

... your cousin, I presume.' Baines smiled at her. 'But let me assure ye, Miss Beechinor, this is a mere matter of form. A will must be signed in the presence of two witnesses, both present at the same time; and there's only yeself ...
— Tales of the Five Towns • Arnold Bennett

... its inert being? Knowing nothing of other than the chemical and physical laws, what is its criticism worth of the principles of Biology? And even when some visitor from the upper world, for example some root from a living tree, penetrating its dark recess, honors it with a touch, will it presume to define the form and purpose of its patron, or until the bioplasm has done its gracious work can it even know that it is being touched? The barrier which separates Kingdoms from one another restricts mind not less ...
— Natural Law in the Spiritual World • Henry Drummond

... venture to add nothing to what has already been written about these marvellous products of Japanese floriculture considered in themselves; but there is a little story relating to chrysanthemums which I may presume to tell. ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... person whom Miss Brooks sent to Whitestone Hall with my mull dresses some three hours since, I presume. May I ask what ...
— Daisy Brooks - A Perilous Love • Laura Jean Libbey

... enwrapt he saw Such scenes of beauty passing human speech, Such scenes of peace and joy past human thought, That he who sings must tune a heavenly lyre And seraphs touch his lips with living fire. My unanointed lips will not presume To try such lofty themes, glad if I gain A distant prospect of the promised land, And catch some glimpses through the gates ajar. Long time he wandered through these blissful scenes, Time measured ...
— The Dawn and the Day • Henry Thayer Niles

... few jurisdictions a local regulation has of late years been enacted, that no Mason shall belong to more than one lodge. It is, I presume, competent for a Grand Lodge to enact such a regulation; but where such enactment has not taken place, we must be governed by the ancient and ...
— The Principles of Masonic Law - A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages And Landmarks of - Freemasonry • Albert G. Mackey

... say?" "Look out for the blockade. I do not know what the end may be soon," he answered. "What does Jeff Davis mean by that?" she asked. "Sarah Anne, I don't know, unless he means that the niggers will be free." "O, my God, what shall we do?" "I presume," he said, "we shall have to put our boys to work and hire help." "But," she said, "what will the niggers do if they are free? Why, they will starve if we don't keep them." "Oh, well," he said, "let ...
— Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days • Annie L. Burton

... truth about it, is what you should say." A third parishioner comes to invite the rector and the curate to a feast at his house. "For myself," says the curate, "I promise to come; but I fear it will not be convenient for the rector to accompany me." "I presume then," says the man, "that he has some particular business on hand?" "No, not any particular business," answers the curate; "but the truth is, we lately turned him out to grass, and becoming frisky, he dislocated his thigh, and now lies in a ...
— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

... "May I presume to ask you, sir," said Candide, "whether you do not receive a great deal of pleasure from ...
— Candide • Voltaire

... the expedition, sent out under Sir John McNeill, in which that gallant general and his brave troops fought with indomitable heroism, not only against courageous foes, but against errors which, as a civilian, we will not presume to criticise, and against local difficulties which were said ...
— Blue Lights - Hot Work in the Soudan • R.M. Ballantyne

... political, and social reminiscences of Mr Jerdan during the last fifty years, has just seen the light. It will be found to be one of the most amusing books of the day, and also not without a moral of its own kind. We presume it is of no use to debate how far it is allowable to bring before the public matters pertaining to private life, and about which living individuals may feel a delicacy. The time for such questions seems past. Assuming so much, we at ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 441 - Volume 17, New Series, June 12, 1852 • Various

... of its ferns and the continuity of its forests for hundreds of miles; but it is satisfactory to have at length obtained such positive proofs of showers of rain, the drops of which resembled in their average size those which now fall from the clouds. From such data we may presume that the atmosphere of the Carboniferous period corresponded in density with that now investing the globe, and that different currents of air varied then as now in temperature, so as to give rise, by their mixture, to the condensation of ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell

... great alarm at the expected arrival of king Juba, he called them together, and said, "I have to inform you that in a very few days the king will be here, with ten legions, thirty thousand horse, a hundred thousand light-armed foot, and three hundred elephants. Let none of you, therefore, presume to make further enquiry, or indulge in conjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have from undoubted intelligence; otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazy vessel, and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds, to be ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus

... Yet was he sorely tempted, and we may presume that he cursed inwardly, for his enemy refused to be drawn into wordy warfare, and he himself had exhausted his vocabulary of sneering abuse, even as ...
— The Nest of the Sparrowhawk • Baroness Orczy

... called upon, I say, to clap their hands on the trunk, they again rushed for their respective branches; and it so happened, that, one and all, they changed places; but still cried out, 'Here it is; here it is!' 'Peace! peace! ye silly blind men,' said Tammaro. 'Will ye without eyes presume to see more sharply than those who have them? The tree is too much for us all. ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II (of 2) • Herman Melville

... "And, as you presume that, among those eleven properties, there must inevitably be one which I keep for my own needs and those of my friends, you have instructed Ganimard to take the ...
— The Blonde Lady - Being a Record of the Duel of Wits between Arsne Lupin and the English Detective • Maurice Leblanc

... design. What Dr. Taylor means by the "historical reason" we can only conjecture from his saying that it is of the same order as his historical reason for believing "that the Bible is the Word of God." The historical reason for this, we presume, is that there are various literary and traditional proofs that the Old Testament was held to be the Word of God by the Jewish nation at a very early period, and was by them transmitted as such to the modern Christian world, and ...
— Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 • Edwin Lawrence Godkin

... performance. I at first found it rather difficult to preserve my balance well in cantering on a circle, but that came to me far more quickly than ability to ride properly over a fence in a plain flapped saddle, such as I presume ladies would want to use if they adopted that style of riding. The directions given me were to lean back and grip with my knees; but, as in side-saddle riding, I left the reins quite loose, instead of hanging on to them as ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes

... any one should attribute the possibility of such wayward behaviour to the venerable Earl. In his agitation he ate another muffin. After all, if the nobleman did go jumping in the winter why should this young and horsey man presume to criticise him. ...
— The Summons • A.E.W. Mason

... up or wheeled about and fled in the opposite direction. The whole band would have dashed in pursuit and the running fight between four men and more than twelve times their number, every one of whom it is fair to presume was thoroughly familiar with the country, could have resulted in but one way. Skilled and daring as were Carson and his comrades, they could not accomplish the impossible, as they would have had to do in order to escape the yelling band ...
— The Life of Kit Carson • Edward S. Ellis

... her defence. But, worthy Hector, She is a theme of honour and renown, A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds, Whose present courage may beat down our foes, And fame in time to come canonize us; For I presume brave Hector would not lose So rich advantage of a promis'd glory As smiles upon the forehead of this action ...
— The History of Troilus and Cressida • William Shakespeare [Craig edition]

... branch of the Chelonians has given rise to birds, we can yet presume that the palmipede aquatic birds, especially the brevipennes, such as the penguins and the manchots, have given origin ...
— Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard

... be at their stations that district will also be in its due state of organization. In the meantime their places are supplied by the officers before commanding there. And the functions of the governor and judges of Indiana having commenced, the government, we presume, is proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in that district offer so rich a supply of that metal as to merit attention. The report now communicated will inform you of their state and of the necessity of immediate inquiry ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 3 (of 4) of Volume 1: Thomas Jefferson • Edited by James D. Richardson

... to Noah, sitting side by side with the poor cotter, whose whole earthly possession was what, in Irish phrase, is called a "potato garden,"—meaning the exactly smallest possible patch of ground out of which a very Indian-rubber conscience could presume to vote. Here sat the old simple-minded, farmer-like man, in close conversation with a little white-foreheaded, keen-eyed personage, in a black coat and eye-glass,—a flash attorney from Dublin, ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... but few east; and above all, there were no reporters prying into other people's private affairs. Consequently it did not become generally known that there was a vacancy at West Point from our district until I was appointed. I presume Mrs. Bailey confided to my mother the fact that Bartlett had been dismissed, and that the doctor had ...
— Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete • Ulysses S. Grant

... yet he felt most unworthy when in the presence of such a beautiful, unsullied being. It never had affected him so intensely as on this bright morning on the shore of that inland water. What right had he to presume to love such a ...
— Glen of the High North • H. A. Cody

... mention it again, of course. I tell you, because, as you are seeing a good deal of him just now, I think it right that you should know on what sort of a footing he stands." It's all fair, they say, in love and war, and this small breach of confidence was, we must presume, a love stratagem on the part of Mr Cheesacre. He was at this time smitten with the charms both of the widow and of the niece, and he constantly found that the captain was interfering with him on whichever side he ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... together. The young captain issued his orders as calmly as if there were no danger, yet with a promptitude and vigour that inspired his men with confidence. Gascoyne's voice was never heard. He obeyed orders and acted as circumstances required, but he did not presume, as men are too apt to do on such occasions, to give orders and advice when there was a legitimate commander. Only once or twice were the deep tones of his bass voice heard, when he called for more water, or warned ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne

... can't admit," answered Hatteras, gravely, forcibly restraining himself. "To give a name, one should be the discoverer, and that I fancy you were not. Without us, besides, where would you be, sir, you who presume to impose conditions upon us? Twenty feet under ...
— The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras • Jules Verne

... intend to spend the evening doing some deep thinking over of life's problems. The thing is tersely called "The Woman." I presume that ...
— The Beautiful and Damned • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... themselves up to moping or sadness after the failure of their wild attempt to make their condition worse by slaying all the men. By no means. By degrees they recovered the natural tone of their mild yet hearty dispositions, and at last, we presume, came to wonder that they had ever been so mad ...
— The Lonely Island - The Refuge of the Mutineers • R.M. Ballantyne

... the Seigneur. "I do not know why I should be taken for a Frenchman or an infidel. I speak French well, I presume, but I spoke it from the cradle. I speak English with equally good accent," he added, with the glimmer of a smile; for there was a kind of exhilaration in the little contest, even with so much at stake. This miserable, silly charge had that behind it which might open up a grave, make its ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... as enormous as London has its nerves affected by what happens beyond the Atlantic? What has become of all your reading? There is nothing so unnatural as the feelings of a million of persons who live together in one city. They have not one conception like those in villages and in the country. They presume or despond from quite different motives. They have both more sense and less, than those who are not in contact with a multitude. Wisdom forms empires, but folly dissolves them; and a great capital, which dictates ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume II • Horace Walpole

... jotted down the name, I presume phonetically, in his note-book. Now, mind, that man has not had a scandal in his parish for fourteen years; and he is up to his neck in securities for half ...
— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... (see Appendix I.) that the government and both houses responded unanimously to the republican avowal, and that the government removed the symbol of the Crown from the public arms and seal. The press of all shades assented. After this, it was clear (I presume) to Kossuth, or at least it soon became so, that all sympathy with royal power was gone out of the nation's heart. Hungarians may settle that amongst themselves: but as for Englishmen,—when for seven ...
— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth

... "I presume that those who disharmonize us, aid us to higher states, for they force us out in search of something better. The divine economy is at work in every phase of life, and our growth of soul is often greater in our night of ...
— Dawn • Mrs. Harriet A. Adams

... Rebilus, as I wrote to you before, is at Rome. He solemnly affirms his great obligations to you, and reports well of your health.[672] I think the question of the treasury was settled in my absence. When you speak of having finished four tragedies in sixteen days, I presume you are borrowing from some one else? And do you deign to be indebted to others after writing the Electra, and the Troades? Don't be idle; and don't think the proverbial [Greek: gnothi seauton] was only meant to discourage vanity: it means also that we should be aware of our own ...
— The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 - The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... I presume?" said Lentulus, icily, "and he must fly over to the cote of his little dove and see that she hasn't flitted away? He'd better have a care in his doings. He'll have something more serious on hand ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis

... James Funnell has passed on, John Ashley, having opened the gate, lifts the body of Aaron Cohen in his arms and carries him across the Square. The Square is deserted, of course, but the way is easy enough, and we must presume that Ashley had been in it before. Anyway, there was no fear of ...
— The Old Man in the Corner • Baroness Orczy

... blaming him. I respect him for wishing to be independent. I own to being a little surprised that you should not have told me of this before, though, Ella. But for that chattering girl, I presume I should have been left to discover it for myself. I wonder you cannot bring yourself to be a little more open with your mother, ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey

... your inner being; in your ideas, your judgment, your habits; in a word, there is nothing concerning the outer world in which we agree. Your ill-humor, your complaints of things inevitable, your sullen looks, the extraordinary opinions you utter, like oracles, none may presume to contradict; all this depresses me and troubles me, without helping you. Your eternal quibbles, your laments over the stupid world and human misery, give me ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard

... scientific tournament of the highest interest. The speakers whom we have had the honor of hearing seem to me to have exhausted all the arguments for and against, and at the present stage of the discussion I presume that these debates have permitted each one of us to form, with a full knowledge of the case, an opinion upon the question on which we are called ...
— International Conference Held at Washington for the Purpose of Fixing a Prime Meridian and a Universal Day. October, 1884. • Various

... begun life as a cook, few could be more arrogant than Varennes on occasion; but he possessed the valuable knack of knowing with whom he could presume, and never attempted to impose on me. Apologising with the easy grace of a man who had risen in life by pleasing, he sat with me awhile, recalling old days and feats, and then left, giving me to understand that I might depend on him ...
— From the Memoirs of a Minister of France • Stanley Weyman

... attained to the conception of a sole Primal Being as the supreme good, it must not, therefore, imagine that it has transcended the empirical conditions of its application, and risen to the immediate cognition of new objects; it must not presume to start from the conception which it has gained, and to deduce from it the moral laws themselves. For it was these very laws, the internal practical necessity of which led us to the hypothesis of an independent ...
— The Critique of Pure Reason • Immanuel Kant

... cases,—delirium and great gastric distress being very common symptoms. The tongue, especially at its border, is frequently the seat of eruption, which may be compared to the vesicular stage on the skin, with the summits cut off. The lining membrane of the mouth and fauces and pharynx, are, we presume, similarly affected, judging from the soreness of these parts, and the thick muco-purulent matter sometimes mixed with blood, which is spit out or brought up by screatus. The subjects most liable to ...
— North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 • Various

... should plume, And on his neighbour's worth presume; But still let Nature's garb prevail— Esop has left this little tale: A Daw, ambitious and absurd, Pick'd up the quills of Juno's bird; And, with the gorgeous spoil adorn'd, All his own sable brethren scorn'd, And join'd the peacocks—who in scoff Stripp'd ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... man and a soldier," she said, "to presume upon the natural delicacy of a lady under such circumstances. She shrinks from you and fears you. She dare not encounter you even in the presence of so dear a friend as I am. But I do not shrink from you, Captain Fyffe, and I am not afraid of you. I tell you once more that I think ...
— In Direst Peril • David Christie Murray

... torments the Leviathan into soon rising again to meet the sharp lance of his foes. Yet not to speak of the peril of the thing, it is to be doubted whether this course is always the best; for it is but reasonable to presume, that the longer the stricken whale stays under water, the more he is exhausted. Because, owing to the enormous surface of him—in a full grown sperm whale something less than 2000 square feet—the ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville

... against that of him who made Virgil wonder to gaze upon him,—"disteso, tanto vilmente, nell' eterno esilio"; or of him whom Dante stood beside, "come 'l frate che confessa lo perfido assassin?" [6] Shakespeare and Alighieri knew men better than most of us, I presume! They were both in the midst of the main struggle between the temporal and spiritual powers. They had an opinion, we may guess. But where is it? Bring it into court! Put Shakespeare's or Dante's creed into articles, and send it up for trial by the ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... cells have had a portion of the same food. This is what they gain, therefore, by vicinity to the royal cells. The bees, in their course thither, will pass in numbers over them, stop and drop some portion of the jelly destined for the royal larvae. This reasoning, I presume, is consistent with ...
— New observations on the natural history of bees • Francis Huber

... be," replied the stranger, with a laugh. "Ask that, or presume to remove this shield, and I vanish like a fairy or a phantom. But if you promise to be very obedient, I may give you hopes of disclosing my face—perhaps my name—at our next interview. But in reward for your submission to my behest, I will allow you, like a benignant sovereign, ...
— The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage

... without mercy turned away, and even denied money sufficient to carry her back to Corsica. Had she made free with Madame Letitia's plate or wardrobe, there is no doubt but that she had been forgiven; but to presume to share with her those sacred supports on her way to Paradise was a more unpardonable act with a devotee than to steal from a lover the portrait ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... proper exercise of that authority during his highness's minority." The defeated army was to be in great part disbanded, and an additional contingent force levied, of seven regiments of infantry and two of cavalry, with twenty guns—a proportionate extent of territory, we presume, being ceded for its maintenance, as usual in such cases: exchanges were further made of certain frontier districts, for the mutual convenience of the two contracting powers; and last, not least, the expenses of the campaign were to be disbursed forthwith from the Gwalior treasury. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various

... her purpose; she mystified him—which she couldn't help and, comparatively, didn't mind; then it came over her that he had, after all, a simplicity, very considerable, on which she had never dared to presume. It was a discovery—not like the other discovery she had once made, but giving out a freshness; and she recognised again in the light of it the number of the ideas of which he thought her capable. They were all, apparently, queer for him, but she had at least, with the lapse of the ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James

... there is an economic revolution. In fact the exploiter himself is a transition type between the farmer and the husbandman. "The fundamental problem in American economics always has been that of the distribution of land," says Prof. Ross. The exploiter is, I presume, a temporary economic type, created in the period of re-distribution of land. The characteristic of the exploiter is his commercial valuation of all things. He is the man who sees only ...
— The Evolution of the Country Community - A Study in Religious Sociology • Warren H. Wilson

... before you proceed," I declared with conviction. "I can no more believe the cure is dishonest than Alice or yourself. It is ridiculous to presume so for a moment. I have known the cure too well. He is a prince. He has a heart as big as all outdoors. Look at the good he's done in this village! There is not a vagabond in it but will tell you ...
— A Village of Vagabonds • F. Berkeley Smith

... and not until the war shall be ended, I presume, will it be possible for you to come into the inheritance. I am leaving no near kindred. My little son died in Canada during my absence; his name was Louis. Elizabeth Danesford's mother I knew when she was a girl and lived in London, and, for her sake, her daughter, had she lived, ...
— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane

... would be exposed by a coup-de-main, which might be attempted in spite of the batteries at the entrance of the river, as well as the possibility of effecting a landing a few miles off Cascaes, your lordship has at hand the means of information so much superior to any which I could presume to offer, or collect from professional persons here, that I shall only presume to solicit your lordship's attention to the consideration of this subject, and to the necessity which may arise out of it, for employing ...
— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I • Sir John Ross

... fighting cocks, at which time they drink to access, become riotous, and disturb the quiet and repose of the good citizens, be it ordained by Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Common Council that any white person or persons or free negro or negroes who shall presume to fight any game cocks or dunghill fouls within the jurisdiction of the corporation for any wagers or for diversion shall for every offense pay $5. Also if having assembled in a disorderly manner for the ...
— A Portrait of Old George Town • Grace Dunlop Ecker

... were as healthy-looking and good-humoured a lot of seamen as I had ever met with. Their principal employment seemed to be to take their turn at the wheel; and as the natives performed most of the little work that was to be done in a vessel of this description, carrying no sails, I presume they were entertained only with the view of manning the two small howitzers and half-a-dozen swivel-guns, in case our little craft should find it necessary to shew her teeth. The remaining portion of the men were even finer specimens of humanity than the Europeans. With ...
— Chambers' Edinburgh Journal - Volume XVII., No 423, New Series. February 7th, 1852 • Various

... "I presume so, fellows," responded the chair. "Martin is already a member of a committee of three chosen at ...
— The Grammar School Boys of Gridley - or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving • H. Irving Hancock

... of your appearance at the bar. Your companion has much more the air of a sailor than of a lawyer."—This was true enough, there being no mistaking Marble's character, though I had put on a body-coat to come ashore in;—"I presume he is not ...
— Miles Wallingford - Sequel to "Afloat and Ashore" • James Fenimore Cooper

... thy vital fire, And the fair promise of thy early bloom Lost, in youth's morn extinct; sunk in the tomb; Mute in the grave sleeps thy enchanted lyre! And is it vainly that our souls aspire? Falsely does the presaging heart presume That we shall live beyond life's cares and gloom; Grasps it eternity with high desire, But to imagine bliss, feel woe, and die; Leaving survivors to worse pangs than death? Not such the sanction of the Eternal Mind. The ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White

... that possibly I might one day call you mine. I had formed the most delightful images, and my fancy fondly brooded over them; but now I am wretched for the loss of what I really had no right to expect. I must now think no more of you as a mistress; still I presume to ask to be admitted as a friend. As such I wish to be allowed to wait on you, and as I expect to remove in a few days a little further off, and you, I suppose, will soon leave this place, I wish to see or hear from you soon; and if an expression should perhaps escape me, rather too warm for friendship, ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... into?" repeated the lawyer, angrily; "are you not aware, sir, that this is my private apartment? What has induced you to presume ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke

... you not condemn yourself? Have you attempted any word of excuse? Have you given any reason why I should have been kept in the dark? Your friend Miss Altifiorla knew it all I presume?" ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... a tenacious red clay formation, from which the soil we presume has all been washed away "long time ago." No planter, he says, would have put such land in tobacco without heavy manuring; and yet it produced a fair crop of tobacco. Owing to distance from navigation, he could not ...
— Guano - A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers • Solon Robinson

... boy," exclaimed Dame Charter, "to say that you presume to love our Mistress Kate?" And her eyes glowed upon him with all the warmth of a mother's pride, for this was the wish of her heart, ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton

... not a few of them are fabricated and supported by false testimony. Projects are on foot, it is believed, to induce Congress to provide for new classes of claims, and to revive old ones through the repeal or modification of the statute of limitations, by which they are now barred. I presume these schemes, if proposed, will be received with little favor by Congress, and I recommend that persons having claims against the United States cognizable by any tribunal or Department thereof be required to present them ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Ulysses S. Grant • Ulysses S. Grant

... punishments which were inflicted upon them in Jewish history. They began their statement by formally acknowledging that Peter himself had absolute power to dispose of the case of his son according to his own sovereign will and pleasure; that they had no jurisdiction in the case, and could not presume to pronounce judgment, or say any thing which could in any way restrain or limit the Czar in doing what he judged best. But nevertheless, as the Czar had graciously asked them for their counsel as a means of instructing ...
— Peter the Great • Jacob Abbott

... notes between his lips. "You have some good reason for telling me that, I presume?" he muttered, uttering the first words that occurred to his ...
— A Son of the Immortals • Louis Tracy

... you all about my trip to San Francisco, and what a good time I had [on that occasion she visited the jail where she was once a prisoner and where she was converted on or about Feb. 14, 1903], but I presume you have been very busy, or ...
— Fifteen Years With The Outcast • Mrs. Florence (Mother) Roberts

... under way (though there was never an engagement) when—" Mrs. Greggory paused and wet her lips. Her voice, when she resumed, carried the stern note so familiar to Billy in her first acquaintance with this woman and her daughter. "As I presume Mr. Arkwright has told you, we have met with many changes in our life—changes which necessitated a new home and a new mode of living. Naturally, under those circumstances, old ...
— Miss Billy's Decision • Eleanor H. Porter

... "But the postmark is a week old, so I presume the meeting is a thing of the past. I guess I'll not keep the letter," he concluded, and cast it on the ground where he ...
— Dave Porter and His Rivals - or, The Chums and Foes of Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer

... there surely may come into sudden being, through the unfolding of the larger future brain, powers not less wonderful than the ability to remember former births. The dreams of Buddhism can scarcely be surpassed, because they touch the infinite; but who can presume to say they never will ...
— Kokoro - Japanese Inner Life Hints • Lafcadio Hearn

... not to be measured in dollars and cents," remarked Mr. Lenox. "If I could have acquired as much German and French as I presume you have, to say nothing of other things, I should look back upon the time as well spent at almost any cost. At your age a year or two more or less—you don't realize it now, but you will if you come to my age—doesn't count for so very much, and you are not too old," ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... somewhat as the modern digger does with his tin dish, with this difference, that his ancient prototype allowed the water and lighter particles to escape over the rim as he swirled the stuff round and round. I presume, in finishing the operation, he collected the golden grains by gently lapping the water over the reduced material, ...
— Getting Gold • J. C. F. Johnson

... "I presume they do," said Mr. Ashford, smiling as he lifted both Marty and the doll to his knee. "How many ...
— A Missionary Twig • Emma L. Burnett

... an armament is ample for every occasion which is at all likely to arise; and if the professor will only furnish me with the particulars of which he has spoken, as to the sailing and so on of the ship, I will undertake to find and capture her. But I presume you are all fully aware that such capture will be an ...
— With Airship and Submarine - A Tale of Adventure • Harry Collingwood

... the whimsical Fates do something different, find it interesting, and proceed to do something else. So, though Timmins had been accustomed all his life to managing bulls, good-tempered and bad-tempered alike, and had never had the ugliest of them presume to turn upon him, he was not astonished now by the apparition of Smith's bull, a wide-horned, carrot-red, white-faced Hereford, charging down upon him in thunderous fury from behind a poplar thicket. In a flash he remembered that the bull, which was notoriously murderous ...
— Kings in Exile • Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

... silence again for some minutes, and the cloud upon Trevelyan's brow became blacker than before. Then he rose from his chair and walked round to the sofa on which his wife was sitting. "I presume," said he, "that your wishes and mine in this matter must be ...
— He Knew He Was Right • Anthony Trollope

... "'So, sir, I presume you are come to witness the trial of skill at the old round church? I understand the amateurs expect a pretty ...
— The Great German Composers • George T. Ferris

... stimulated to some effort to realize the society of a century ago, and figure to ourselves what it must have been like to live then. In inviting you now to consider certain reflections upon this subject which have occurred to me, I presume that I shall rather follow than divert the course ...
— Looking Backward - 2000-1887 • Edward Bellamy

... moonshine! I ought not to waste my valuable time with such trash. There isn't a real character in the book, not one. When I write a book, and I presume I shall some time, if I live long enough, I shall put people into it who have real flesh and blood in them and who do startling things. But I'll have to live it ...
— One Day - A sequel to 'Three Weeks' • Anonymous

... "I presume," said the captain, "this business which you are good enough to put before me is sound; there is no ...
— Looking Seaward Again • Walter Runciman

... just on the point of inquiring, with great abhorrence of the man's cold-blooded villainy, how Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz, who was counsel for the opposite party, dared to presume to tell Mr. Serjeant Snubbin, who was counsel for him, that it was a fine morning,—when he was interrupted by a general rising of the barristers, and a loud cry of 'Silence!' from the officers of the court. Looking ...
— Bardell v. Pickwick • Percy Fitzgerald

... presume, betwixt my father and myself—our Christian names have the same initials, though the terminations are different. I—I—I would esteem it a most fortunate mistake if I could have the honour of supplying my father's place in anything that could be ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... will illustrate our present knowledge of the development of the vegetable kingdom in geological time. The shaded vertical bands exhibit the proportions of the fossil forms actually discovered, while the outline extensions are intended to show what we may fairly presume to have been the approximate periods of origin, and progressive increase of the number of species, of the chief divisions of the vegetable kingdom. These seem to accord fairly well with their respective grades of development, and thus offer no obstacle to the acceptance of the belief in their ...
— Darwinism (1889) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... you have learned from Aileen Lawton, I presume. It certainly was a dreadful earthquake, worse than that of eighteen-sixty-eight. Is anything valuable broken? There is always less damage done on the hills. What is ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton

... revenue and increase of commerce—with a flattering prospect of completely annihilating the use of foreign liquors in our country, and thereby saving the expenditure of millions of dollars; and ultimately rendering our liquors an article of export and source of wealth—I presume every mind will be struck with the propriety of encouraging a branch of business so ...
— The Practical Distiller • Samuel McHarry

... Captain Tacon. "And I may venture to say that I behold one with whom I have exchanged some hard knocks, but love not the worse, and whom I once knew as Pedro Alvarez; though from the flag under which you serve I presume you have changed your name as well ...
— Ronald Morton, or the Fire Ships - A Story of the Last Naval War • W.H.G. Kingston

... Sara profoundly. She had seen that his quick native eyes had taken in at a glance all the bare shabbiness of the room, but he spoke to her as if he were speaking to the little daughter of a rajah, and pretended that he observed nothing. He did not presume to remain more than a few moments after he had caught the monkey, and those moments were given to further deep and grateful obeisance to her in return for her indulgence. This little evil one, he said, stroking the monkey, was, in truth, not so evil as he seemed, and his master, who was ill, was ...
— A Little Princess • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... builds a plain nest in the open field, without so much as a bush or thistle or tuft of grass to protect it or mark its site; you may step upon it, or the cattle may tread it into the ground. But the danger from this source, I presume, the bird considers less than that from another. Skunks and foxes have a very impertinent curiosity, as Finchie well knows; and a bank or hedge, or a rank growth of grass or thistles, that might promise protection and cover to mouse or bird, these ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs

... age; so I will make thee my companion, and thou shalt go with me, to do me service." When Kanmakan heard him speak thus unseemly, after what he had shown him of skill in verse, he knew that he despised him and thought to presume with him; so he answered him with soft and dulcet speech, saying, "O chief of the Arabs, leave my tenderness of age and tell me thy story and why thou wanderest by night in the desert, reciting verses. Thou talkest of my serving thee; who then art thou and what ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume II • Anonymous

... marquis, "are such as to make any want of respect on your part an additional insult, and you are mistaken if you think that you can thus presume on the forbearance I have ...
— The King's Warrant - A Story of Old and New France • Alfred H. Engelbach

... perhaps wonder that an obscure person, who has not the honour to be known to your lordship, should presume to address you in this manner. But that a man who has written something with a design to promote Useful Knowledge and Religion in the world should make choice of your lordship for his patron, will ...
— A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge • George Berkeley

... do. That's why I've always hated you. I presume I shall hate you worse than ever to-morrow. Meanwhile, will you please tell Barbara? I can't help what they all think, and I don't care. I only wanted you to see that I've got a little sense of obligation left and that after I've let a person apologize—Don't ...
— Betty Wales Senior • Margaret Warde

... instructions to propose a truce, and to report on what conditions the Greeks would agree to it, Klearchus replied abruptly—"Well then—go and tell the King, that our first business must be to fight; for we have nothing to eat, nor will any man presume to talk to Greeks about a truce, without first providing dinner for them." With this reply the heralds rode off, but returned very speedily; thus making it plain that the King, or the commanding officer, was near at hand. They brought word that the King thought their ...
— The Two Great Retreats of History • George Grote

... see you, monsieur," said Louis XV. in a sweet little voice, from which even the etiquette which they imposed upon him could not entirely take away all grace; "and all the more glad to see you from its not being your usual hour. I presume that you have some good news to ...
— The Conspirators - The Chevalier d'Harmental • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)

... birds from under the eaves of her hood. "Lord, I believe that I am afraid of you!" she coquetted. "When I bethink me that all the time I have been chiding you for being unambitious for glory, you have had this in your mind! I shall never presume to compass your moods again. Yes. Oh, yes! I shall see daggers in your smile and poison in your lightest word." Laughing, she stooped and kissed his hand with the first semblance of respect which she had ever ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz

... a criminal judge is an excellent witness against Capital Punishment, but a bad witness in its favour, I do so on more broad and general grounds than apply to this error in fact and deduction (so I presume to consider it) on the part of the distinguished judge in question. And they are grounds which do not apply offensively to judges, as a class; than whom there are no authorities in England so deserving of general respect and confidence, or so possessed of it; but which apply alike to all men ...
— Miscellaneous Papers • Charles Dickens

... Paganini had just completed that successful effort, the rondo a la Sicilienne from 'La Clochette,' in which was a silver bell accompaniment to the fiddle, producing a most original effect (one of those effects, we presume, which have tended to associate so much of the marvellous with the name of this genius). No sooner had the outburst of applause ended, than the excited Paddy in the gallery shouted out as loud ...
— Among the Great Masters of Music - Scenes in the Lives of Famous Musicians • Walter Rowlands

... 'Your father, I presume, Miss Hale. I see it by the likeness. I am sure I am very glad to see you, sir, and ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... men of the world too indolent, for the study or even the perusal of such works. Far be it from me to derogate from the real and great merit of so useful a writer as Puffendorff. His treatise is a mine in which all his successors must dig. I only presume to suggest, that a book so prolix, and so utterly void of all the attractions of composition, is likely to repel many readers who are interested, and who might perhaps be disposed to acquire some knowledge of ...
— A Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations • James Mackintosh

... "I presume, sir, that you are canvassing for new desks," said Miss Hender, with dignity. "You will have to see the supervisor and the selectmen." There did not seem to be any need of his lingering, but she had an ardent desire to be pleasing to a person of such evident distinction. ...
— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett

... not be a let, but that when a bishop should be consecrated, there might be three or foure present. Also touching the bishops of France, he willed Augustine in no wise to intermeddle with them, otherwise than by exhortation and good admonition to be giuen, but not to presume anie thing by authoritie, sith the archbishop of Arles had receiued the pall in times past, whose authoritie he might not diminish, least he should seeme to put his sickle into another mans haruest. But as for the bishops of Britaine, he committed ...
— Chronicles 1 (of 6): The Historie of England 5 (of 8) - The Fift Booke of the Historie of England. • Raphael Holinshed

... so indeede; his conversation Is full of honest harmlesse curtesie: I dare presume, if that he be within, Hele serve us well, and keepe us company. See where he is, go in, ile follow you; [Strive curtesies. Nay straine no curtesie, you shall ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen

... a few diseases excepted, can scarcely be found in slums. Even in this great age of pseudo-scientific enlightenment, we do not have a carious tooth extracted until it aches, though we have a front tooth cleaned and stopped on the first appearance of decay. What the eye doth not see.... Yet we presume to judge men by their deviation from our conventional standards ...
— A Poor Man's House • Stephen Sydney Reynolds

... a great happiness to me, my dear boy, that you have turned your back on that Brotherhood, but I presume you intend to adhere to ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine

... Mayas are Asiatics by ancestry? The daily press asserts that I make that claim; it is mistaken. I am free to say I don't know what to do with my spotted Maya babies. I presume that Baelz will cousin them ...
— In Indian Mexico (1908) • Frederick Starr

... is singular how little I know, and how little I ever hear. There is no one whom I can ask to tell me of him. That he did not attend during the last Session I do know, and we presume that he has now abandoned his seat. I fear that his health is bad,—or perhaps, worse still, that his mind is affected by the gloom of his life. I suppose that he lives exclusively at Loughlinter. From time to time I am implored by him to return to my duty beneath his roof. He ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope

... that he resided, together with his son-in-law, the duke of Clarence, in his government of Calais during the commencement of this rebellion; and that his brother Montague acted with vigor against the northern rebels. We may thence presume, that the insurrection had not proceeded from the secret counsels and instigation of Warwick; though the murder committed by the rebels on the earl of Rivers, his capital enemy, forms, on the other hand, a violent presumption ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B. - From Henry III. to Richard III. • David Hume

... presume we'll go to Sherry's to lunch. Think of it! I've never been there—I'm so glad," and she danced around the room. "And my new grey broadcloth suit with silver fox will be just right to wear. You know ...
— How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl • Irene Elliott Benson

... perceived in the Patellas, of which the outer surfaces were scaling off. They lay scattered on the smooth surface of the gravel, but abounded most in certain patches, especially at the heads of the smaller valleys: they generally contained sand in their insides; and I presume that they have been washed by alluvial action out of thin sandy layers, traces of which may sometimes be seen covering the gravel. The several plains have very level surfaces; but all are scooped out by numerous broad, winding, flat-bottomed ...
— South American Geology - also: - Title: Geological Observations On South America • Charles Darwin

... murder every man he met, passive obedience commands them to submit. All laws made to limit him signify nothing, though passed by his own consent, if he thinks fit to break them. God will indeed call him to a severe account, but the whole people, united to a man, cannot presume to hold his hands, or offer him the least active disobedience. The people were certainly created for him, and not he for the people. His next heir, though worse than what I have described, though a fool ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift

... proceed as you have begun, and ruin your mother before you are five years older. Good-morning; it is time for me to go to breakfast. My engagements won't permit me to see you much during the time that you stay in London. I presume that you will acquaint your mother with the news which you have just ...
— Boys and girls from Thackeray • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... the bigger boys, though probably not one of them had exchanged a syllable with her. This girl now became betrothed to a Windsor tradesman. No sooner was this ascertained, than her admirers let him plainly know, that should he presume to prosecute his design, it should cost him dearly. Several of them now never met the poor fellow without insulting him; and I remember one boy, more ardent than the rest, went into his shop and fought him chivalrously, like a good knight and true. So high did the feud now run, that the ...
— Confessions of an Etonian • I. E. M.

... do not presume to speak of that beauty of nature which Frances Countess Russell showed in the sanctity of the family, in the close intimacy of her private friends. Others have done this far more truly, and will continue to bear witness to her life whilst this generation and the next shall survive. ...
— Lady John Russell • Desmond MacCarthy and Agatha Russell

... minute ago, if my eyes did not deceive me. Ah!"—his glance went rapidly to where Philip's tall boyish figure, with his back turned, was visible against the further window—"that's all right," he said, "now I presume everybody's here." ...
— The Marriage of Elinor • Margaret Oliphant

... "Presume likely!" said Mrs. Chirk, with melancholy satisfaction. "His father was a real smart man. There warn't no better hayin' hand in the county than Loammi Chirk. And I'm in hopes Zerubbabel will ...
— Queen Hildegarde • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards



Words linked to "Presume" :   move, presumptive, anticipate, do, assume, testify, bear witness, behave, prove, show, take for granted, presumption, expect, dare, presuppose, suppose, act, evidence



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