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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GUESS, v.t. ges. [L. conjicio; Eng. to gush.]
1. To conjecture; to form an opinion without certain principles or means of knowledge; to judge at random, either of a present unknown fact, or of a future fact.
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess.
2. To judge or form an opinion from some reasons that render a thing probable, but fall short of sufficient evidence. From slight circumstances or occasional expressions, we guess an author's meaning.
3. To hit upon by accident.
GUESS, v.i. To conjecture; to judge at random. We do not know which road to take, but we must guess at it.
GUESS, n. Conjecture; judgment without any certain evidence or grounds.
A poet must confess
His arts like physic,but a happy guess.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence [syn: guess, conjecture, supposition, surmise, surmisal, speculation, hypothesis]
2: an estimate based on little or no information [syn: guess, guesswork, guessing, shot, dead reckoning] v
1: expect, believe, or suppose; "I imagine she earned a lot of money with her new novel"; "I thought to find her in a bad state"; "he didn't think to find her in the kitchen"; "I guess she is angry at me for standing her up" [syn: think, opine, suppose, imagine, reckon, guess]
2: put forward, of a guess, in spite of possible refutation; "I am guessing that the price of real estate will rise again"; "I cannot pretend to say that you are wrong" [syn: guess, venture, pretend, hazard]
3: judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time); "I estimate this chicken to weigh three pounds" [syn: estimate, gauge, approximate, guess, judge]
4: guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize" [syn: guess, infer]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: Middle English gessen, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Norwegian & Swedish gissa to guess, Middle Dutch gissen, gessen, Old Norse geta to get, guess — more at get Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. to form an opinion of from little or no evidence 2. believe, suppose <I guess you're right> 3. to arrive at a correct conclusion about by conjecture, chance, or intuition <guess the answer> intransitive verb to make a guess • guessable adjective • guesser noun II. noun Date: 14th century conjecture, surmise

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. (often absol.) estimate without calculation or measurement, or on the basis of inadequate data. 2 tr. (often foll. by that etc. + clause, or to + infin.) form a hypothesis or opinion about; conjecture; think likely (cannot guess how you did it; guess them to be Italian). 3 tr. conjecture or estimate correctly by guessing (you have to guess the weight). 4 intr. (foll. by at) make a conjecture about. --n. an estimate or conjecture reached by guessing. Phrases and idioms: anybody's (or anyone's) guess something very vague or difficult to determine. I guess colloq. I think it likely; I suppose. keep a person guessing colloq. withhold information. Derivatives: guessable adj. guesser n. Etymology: ME gesse, of uncert. orig.: cf. OSw. gissa, MLG, MDu. gissen: f. the root of GET v.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Guess Guess, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Guessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Guessing.] [OE. gessen; akin to Dan. gisse, Sw. gissa, Icel. gizha, D. gissen: cf. Dan. giette to guess, Icel. geta to get, to guess. Probably originally, to try to get, and akin to E. get. See Get.] 1. To form an opinion concerning, without knowledge or means of knowledge; to judge of at random; to conjecture. First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess. --Pope. 2. To judge or form an opinion of, from reasons that seem preponderating, but are not decisive. We may then guess how far it was from his design. --Milton. Of ambushed men, whom, by their arms and dress, To be Taxallan enemies I guess. --Dryden. 3. To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly; as, he who guesses the riddle shall have the ring; he has guessed my designs. 4. To hit upon or reproduce by memory. [Obs.] Tell me their words, as near as thou canst guess them. --Shak. 5. To think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine; -- followed by an objective clause. Not all together; better far, I guess, That we do make our entrance several ways. --Shak. But in known images of life I guess The labor greater. --Pope. Syn: To conjecture; suppose; surmise; suspect; divine; think; imagine; fancy. Usage: To Guess, Think, Reckon. Guess denotes, to attempt to hit upon at random; as, to guess at a thing when blindfolded; to conjecture or form an opinion on hidden or very slight grounds: as, to guess a riddle; to guess out the meaning of an obscure passage. The use of the word guess for think or believe, although abundantly sanctioned by good English authors, is now regarded as antiquated and objectionable by discriminating writers. It may properly be branded as a colloguialism and vulgarism when used respecting a purpose or a thing about which there is no uncertainty; as, I guess I 'll go to bed.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Guess Guess, v. i. To make a guess or random judgment; to conjecture; -- with at, about, etc. This is the place, as well as I may guess. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Guess Guess, n. An opinion as to anything, formed without sufficient or decisive evidence or grounds; an attempt to hit upon the truth by a random judgment; a conjecture; a surmise. A poet must confess His art 's like physic -- but a happy guess. --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(guesses, guessing, guessed) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If you guess something, you give an answer or provide an opinion which may not be true because you do not have definite knowledge about the matter concerned. The suit was faultless: Wood guessed that he was a very successful publisher or a banker... You can only guess at what mental suffering they endure... Paula reached for her camera, guessed distance and exposure, and shot two frames... Guess what I did for the whole of the first week... If she guessed wrong, it meant twice as many meetings the following week. VERB: V that, V at n/wh, V n, V wh, V adv 2. If you guess that something is the case, you correctly form the opinion that it is the case, although you do not have definite knowledge about it. By now you will have guessed that I'm back in Ireland... He should have guessed what would happen... Someone might have guessed our secret and passed it on. VERB: V that, V wh, V n 3. A guess is an attempt to give an answer or provide an opinion which may not be true because you do not have definite knowledge about the matter concerned. My guess is that the chance that these vaccines will work is zero... He'd taken her pulse and made a guess at her blood pressure... Well, we can hazard a guess at the answer. N-COUNT: oft N that, N at n, N as to n/wh 4. If you say that something is anyone's guess or anybody's guess, you mean that no-one can be certain about what is really true. (INFORMAL) Just when this will happen is anyone's guess... PHRASE: v-link PHR 5. You say at a guess to indicate that what you are saying is only an estimate or what you believe to be true, rather than being a definite fact. At a guess he's been dead for two days. PHRASE: PHR with cl [vagueness] 6. You say I guess to show that you are slightly uncertain or reluctant about what you are saying. (mainly AM INFORMAL) I guess she thought that was pretty smart... I guess he's right... 'I think you're being paranoid.'—'Yeah. I guess so.' PHRASE: PHR with cl, PHR so/not [vagueness] 7. If someone keeps you guessing, they do not tell you what you want to know. The author's intention is to keep everyone guessing until the bitter end... PHRASE: V inflects 8. You say guess what to draw attention to something exciting, surprising, or interesting that you are about to say. (INFORMAL) Guess what, I just got my first part in a movie. CONVENTION

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Conjecture, divine, surmise, suspect, mistrust, judge at random, judge with uncertainty. 2. Find out, solve, penetrate, fathom (by conjecture). 3. [New little used except in U.S.] Suppose, think, believe, fancy, imagine, take it, dare say, venture to say. II. v. n. Conjecture, divine, surmise, suspect, mistrust. III. n. Conjecture, surmise, supposition.

Moby Thesaurus

account as, answer, appraise, appreciate, assess, assume, assumption, be afraid, believe, blind bargain, blind guess, bold conjecture, borderline case, bottom, call, cast a horoscope, cast a nativity, chance, class, clear up, conceive, conclude, conjecture, consider, contingency, crack, daresay, debug, decipher, decode, deduce, deem, disentangle, divine, do, dope, dope out, double contingency, dowse for water, esteem, estimate, evaluate, expect, explain, fancy, fathom, feel, feeling, figure, figure out, find out, find the answer, find the solution, forebode, forecast, foresee, foretell, form an estimate, fortune-tell, gamble, gauge, get, get right, give a guess, give an appreciation, guess right, guesstimate, guesswork, hariolate, have a hunch, have an idea, have an impression, have an inkling, have it, have the idea, hazard a conjecture, hit it, hold, hold as, hunch, hypothesis, hypothesize, imagine, interpret, judge, judgement, look upon as, maintain, make a prediction, make a prognosis, make a prophecy, make an estimation, make out, mark, measure, open question, open the lock, opine, perhaps, piece of guesswork, plumb, postulate, predict, prefigure, presage, presume, pretend, prize, prognosticate, prophesy, psych, psych out, puzzle out, question, rank, rate, ravel, ravel out, read palms, read tea leaves, read the future, reason, reckon, regard, resolve, riddle, risk assuming, rough guess, set down as, shot, sight-unseen transaction, solve, soothsay, sort out, speculate, speculation, stab, suppose, supposition, surmise, suspect, suspicion, take, take for, take it, tell fortunes, tell the future, tentatively suggest, theory, think, toss-up, touch and go, trow, undecided issue, undo, unlock, unravel, unriddle, unscramble, untangle, untwist, unverified supposition, unweave, valuate, value, vaticinate, venture a guess, view as, wager, ween, wild guess, work, work out