Adjacent Words

Dubious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DUBIOUS, a. [L. See Doubt. The primary sense is probably to turn or to waver.]
1. Doubtful; wavering or fluctuating in opinion; not settled; not determined; as, the mind is in a dubious state.
2. Uncertain; that of which the truth is not ascertained or known; as a dubious question.
3. Not clear; not plain; as dubious light.
4. Of uncertain event or issue.
In dubious battle.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: fraught with uncertainty or doubt; "they were doubtful that the cord would hold"; "it was doubtful whether she would be admitted"; "dubious about agreeing to go" [syn: doubtful, dubious]
2: open to doubt or suspicion; "the candidate's doubtful past"; "he has a dubious record indeed"; "what one found uncertain the other found dubious or downright false"; "it was more than dubitable whether the friend was as influential as she thought"- Karen Horney [syn: doubtful, dubious, dubitable, in question]
3: not convinced; "they admitted the force of my argument but remained dubious"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin dubius, from dubare to vacillate; akin to Latin duo two — more at two Date: 1548 1. giving rise to uncertainty: as a. of doubtful promise or outcome <a dubious plan> b. questionable or suspect as to true nature or quality <the practice is of dubious legality> 2. unsettled in opinion ; doubtful <I was dubious about the plan> Synonyms: see doubtful • dubiously adverb • dubiousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 hesitating or doubting (dubious about going). 2 of questionable value or truth (a dubious claim). 3 unreliable; suspicious (dubious company). 4 of doubtful result (a dubious undertaking). Derivatives: dubiously adv. dubiousness n. Etymology: L dubiosus f. dubium doubt

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dubious Du"bi*ous, a. [L. dubius, dubiosus, fr. duo two. See Two, and cf. Doubt.] 1. Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined. ``Dubious policy.'' --Sir T. Scott. A dubious, agitated state of mind. --Thackeray. 2. Occasioning doubt; not clear, or obvious; equivocal; questionable; doubtful; as, a dubious answer. Wiping the dingy shirt with a still more dubious pocket handkerchief. --Thackeray. 3. Of uncertain event or issue; as, in dubious battle. Syn: Doubtful; doubting; unsettled; undetermined; equivocal; uncertain. Cf. Doubtful.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe something as dubious, you mean that you do not consider it to be completely honest, safe, or reliable. This claim seems to us to be rather dubious... = questionable ADJ • dubiously Carter was dubiously convicted of shooting three white men in a bar. ADV: ADV after v, ADV adj/-ed 2. If you are dubious about something, you are not completely sure about it and have not yet made up your mind about it. My parents were dubious about it at first but we soon convinced them. = doubtful ADJ: v-link ADJ, oft ADJ about n • dubiously He eyed Coyne dubiously. ADV 3. If you say that someone has the dubious honour or the dubious pleasure of doing something, you are indicating that what they are doing is not an honour or pleasure at all, but is, in fact, unpleasant or bad. Nagy has the dubious honour of being the first athlete to be banned in this way... ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Doubtful, undecided, hesitant, uncertain, wavering, fluctuating, unsettled. 2. Uncertain, doubtful, equivocal, ambiguous, not plain, not clear.

Moby Thesaurus

Humean, Pyrrhonic, a bit thick, a bit thin, absurd, agnostic, ambitendent, ambivalent, amoral, arguable, at issue, at loose ends, beguiling, beyond belief, capricious, catchy, changeable, confutable, conjectural, conscienceless, contestable, controversial, controvertible, corrupt, corrupted, criminal, crooked, dark, debatable, deceiving, deceptive, delusive, delusory, deniable, devious, dishonest, dishonorable, disinclined, disputable, distrustful, double-minded, doubtable, doubtful, doubting, dubitable, equivocal, evasive, fallacious, false, felonious, fence-sitting, fence-straddling, fickle, fishy, fly-by-night, fraudulent, from Missouri, hallucinatory, hard of belief, hard to believe, hardly possible, hesitant, iffy, ill-got, ill-gotten, illusive, illusory, immoral, implausible, improbable, in dispute, in doubt, in dubio, in question, inconceivable, incredible, incredulous, indecisive, indirect, infirm of purpose, insecure, insidious, irresolute, irresolved, leery, mercurial, misleading, mistakable, mistrustful, mistrusting, moot, more than doubtful, mugwumpian, mugwumpish, mutable, not deserving belief, not kosher, of two minds, open, open to doubt, open to question, open to suspicion, passing belief, preposterous, problematic, questionable, questioning, refutable, reluctant, ridiculous, rocky, rotten, scrupulous, shady, shaky, shameless, shifty, shy, sinister, skeptic, skeptical, slippery, speculative, staggering belief, suppositional, suspect, suspecting, suspicious, tall, thick, thin, tottery, treacherous, trickish, tricksy, tricky, trustless, unbelievable, uncertain, unclear, unconscienced, unconscientious, unconscionable, unconvincing, undecided, undependable, underhand, underhanded, undetermined, unearthly, unethical, ungodly, unhealthy, unimaginable, unlikely, unpredictable, unprincipled, unpromising, unreliable, unresolved, unsafe, unsavory, unscrupulous, unsettled, unsound, unstable, unsteady, unstraightforward, unsure, unthinkable, untrusting, untrustworthy, untrusty, unworthy of belief, wary, without remorse, without shame