suppose

present singular third person supposes · participle present supposing · participle past supposed · past supposed

1. intransitivetransitiveTo take for granted; to conclude, with less than absolute supporting data; to believe.

   I won't be back before midday, I don't suppose.

   5 more examples

   I suppose we all agree that this is the best solution.

   I don't suppose you could lend me a euro, could you?

   We're a place setting short, there'll be four of us - always supposing your sis really comes.

   Mum, can go to the park yet? ~ Suppose you did your homework first.

   ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: assume

2. transitiveTo theorize or hypothesize.

   Suppose that A implies B and B implies C. Then A implies C.

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   Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Just what is supposed to be wrong with the pursuit of fame is not always made clear. Plato disapproved of competition for praise on the grounds that it would tempt the great to bend to the will of the crowd. It is hard to argue with that, and social degradation remains a fear.

   2013 September 6, David Cox, “Celebrity rules even Hawking's universe”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 30

   Synonyms: assume

3. transitiveTo imagine; to believe; to receive as true.

   How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

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   Let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men, the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 13:32

   As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.

   1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC

4. obsoletetransitiveTo reckon to be, to account or esteem as.

   [He] keeps you from the honors of a Queene, Being ſuppoſde his worthleſſe Concubine.

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii

5. transitiveTo require to exist or to be true; to imply by the laws of thought or of nature.

   Purpose supposes foresight.

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   One falsehood always supposes another, and renders all you can say suspected.

   1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote

6. obsoletetransitiveTo put by fraud in the place of another; to substitute fraudulently.

   ... that they when the queen is in child-birth, be present and warily observe lest the la-dies should privily counterfeit the inheritable sex, by supposing some other male, when the true birth is female,[…]

   1726 [1614], John Selden, Joannis Seldeni jurisconsulti Opera omnia, tam edita quam inedita, page 1009

   1 more example

   A Water-monster, called the Nickard, does enter by night the chamber, where a woman is brought to bed, and stealeth when they are all sleeping, the new-born child and supposeth another in its place, which child growing up is like a monster and commonly dumb.

   1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 30