implication

plural implications

1. uncountableThe act of implicating.
2. uncountableThe state of being implicated.
3. countableA possible, or indirect, effect or result of a decision or action.

   Dumping waste in the river will have serious implications for the environment.

   2 more examples

   And while that number is expected to shift back slightly into positive territory over this decade, fewer children today establishes an unmistakable implication for tomorrow: fewer adults available as consumers, workers and taxpayers.

   2021 April 23, Ronald Brownstein, “The racist ‘replacement theory’ has it all backward”, in CNN

   With his legal maneuverings, Trump is showing that he also understands the implications of this election — one that could give him substantial powers as president to defray or dismiss many of the legal threats that he’s facing and to behave in office without future accountability.

   2024 February 5, Stephen Collinson, “Trump’s legal battles are at a critical moment with major implications for the 2024 election”, in CNN

4. countableuncountableAn implying, or that which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words.

   But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.

   2011, Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology, page 168

   1 more example

   Dennis Reynolds: What do you mean what do we need a mattress for? Why in the hell do you think we just spent all that money on a boat? The whole purpose of buying the boat in the first place was to get the ladies nice and tipsy topside so we can take 'em to a nice comfortable place below deck and, you know, they can't refuse, because of the implication. Mac: Oh, uh... okay. You had me going there for the first part, the second half kinda threw me. Dennis Reynolds: Well dude, dude, think about it: she's out in the middle of nowhere with some dude she barely knows. You know, she looks around and what does she see? Nothin' but open ocean. "Ahh, there's nowhere for me to run. What am I gonna do, say 'no'?" Mac: Okay. That... that seems really dark. Dennis Reynolds: Nah, no it's not dark. You're misunderstanding me, bro. Mac: I'm-I think I am. Dennis Reynolds: Yeah, you are, because if the girl said "no" then the answer obviously is "no"... Mac: No, right. Dennis Reynolds: But the thing is she's not gonna say "no", she would never say "no" because of the implication. Mac: Now you've said that word "implication" a couple of times. What implication? Dennis Reynolds: The implication that things might go wrong for her if she refuses to sleep with me. Now, not that things are gonna go wrong for her but she's thinkin' that they will.

   2010 September 30, Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, directed by Randall Einhorn, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 6, episode 3 (The Gang Buys a Boat) (Black Comedy), spoken by Dennis Reynolds and Mac (Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney)

5. countablehuman sciencesThe connective in propositional calculus that, when joining two predicates A and B in that order, has the meaning "if A is true, then B is true".
6. countableuncountableLogical consequence.