think

present singular third person thinks · participle present thinking · participle past thought · past thought · first person past singular thought · archaic present second person singular thinkest · past second person singular thought · archaic past second person singular thoughtest · present singular third person thinks · archaic present singular third person thinketh · past singular third person thought · past plural thought · past subjunctive thought · participle present thinking · participle past thought · participle past thunk

1. transitiveTo ponder, to go over in one's mind.

   Idly, the detective thought what his next move should be.

   1 more example

   Had we but world enough and time / This coyness, lady, were no crime. / We would sit down, and think which way / To walk, and pass our long love's day.

   c. 1650, Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

   Synonyms: ponder

2. transitiveTo have (some statement) in one's mind; to say to oneself mentally.

   "I should phone my mother," I thought.

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   So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

3. intransitiveTo communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.

   I thought for three hours about the problem and still couldn’t find the solution.

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   Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”

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

4. intransitiveTo conceive of something or someone

   I tend to think of her as rather ugly.

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   Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

   2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

5. transitiveTo be of the opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.

   Boxing is thought to be a dangerous sport.

   5 more examples

   I don't think it worth complaining about the leak in the roof, is it?

   I hope you won’t think me stupid if I ask you what that means.

   She thought it pointless starting before four o'clock.

   I think she is pretty, contrary to most people.

   It was thought that I was the mole in the company.

   Synonyms: have opinion, deem

6. transitiveTo guess; to reckon; to believe while admittedly being uncertain.

   We should/would have thought she could've washed her hands before, at least.

   Synonyms: guess See Thesaurus:suppose

7. To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).

   In 1985 I sat down and wrote a four-page outline from which I thought to base such a work.

   1998, Dovid Rossoff, Where Heaven Touches Earth, page iii

   2 more examples

   The cupbearer shrugged up his shoulders in displeasure. "I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber," said he[…]

   1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

   “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

8. To presume; to venture.

   Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 3:9

9. abbreviationellipsisinformalEllipsis of think so.

   These plants are dead. Uh, you think?

plural thinks · alternative obsolete thinck · alternative obsolete thinke

1. UKuncountableusuallyAn act of thinking; consideration (of something).

   I'll have a think about that and let you know.

present singular third person thinks · participle present thinking · participle past thought · past thought · alternative obsolete thinck · alternative obsolete thinke

1. obsolete except in methinksTo seem, to appear.

   1 more example

   And whanne syr launcelot sawe he myghte not ryde vp in to the montayne he there alyghte vnder an Appel tree […] And then he leid hym doune to slepe And thenne hym thoughte there came an old man afore hym the whiche sayd A launcelot of euylle feythe and poure byleue wherfor is thy wille tourned soo lyghtely toward thy dedely synne

   And when Sir Lancelot saw that he could not ride up into the mountain, he alighted under an apple tree […] and then he lay down to sleep. And then it seemed to him [lit. him thought] that an old man came before him who said: "Lancelot, of evil faith and poor belief, why is thy will turned so lightly towards thy deadly sin?"

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV