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Infer definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INFER', v.t. [L. infero; in and fero, to bear or produce.]
1. Literally, to bring on; to induce. [Little used.]
2. To deduce; to draw or derive, as a fact or consequence. From the character of God, as creator and governor of the world, we infer the indispensable obligation of all his creatures to obey his commands. We infer one proposition or truth from another, when we perceive that if one is true, the other must be true also.
3. To offer; to produce. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: reason by deduction; establish by deduction [syn: deduce, infer, deduct, derive]
2: draw from specific cases for more general cases [syn: generalize, generalise, extrapolate, infer]
3: conclude by reasoning; in logic [syn: deduce, infer]
4: guess correctly; solve by guessing; "He guessed the right number of beans in the jar and won the prize" [syn: guess, infer]
5: believe to be the case; "I understand you have no previous experience?" [syn: understand, infer]

Merriam Webster's

verb (inferred; inferring) Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French inferer, from Latin inferre, literally, to carry or bring into, from in- + ferre to carry — more at bear Date: 1528 transitive verb 1. to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises <we see smoke and infer fire — L. A. White> — compare imply 2. guess, surmise <your letter…allows me to infer that you are as well as ever — O. W. Holmes †1935> 3. a. to involve as a normal outcome of thought b. to point out ; indicate <this doth infer the zeal I had to see him — Shakespeare> <another survey…infers that two-thirds of all present computer installations are not paying for themselves — H. R. Chellman> 4. suggest, hint <are you inferring I'm incompetent?> intransitive verb to draw inferences <men…have observed, inferred, and reasoned…to all kinds of results — John Dewey> • inferable also inferrible adjective • inferrer noun Synonyms: infer, deduce, conclude, judge, gather mean to arrive at a mental conclusion. infer implies arriving at a conclusion by reasoning from evidence; if the evidence is slight, the term comes close to surmise <from that remark, I inferred that they knew each other>. deduce often adds to infer the special implication of drawing a particular inference from a generalization <denied we could deduce anything important from human mortality>. conclude implies arriving at a necessary inference at the end of a chain of reasoning <concluded that only the accused could be guilty>. judge stresses a weighing of the evidence on which a conclusion is based <judge people by their actions>. gather suggests an intuitive forming of a conclusion from implications <gathered their desire to be alone without a word>. Usage: Sir Thomas More is the first writer known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses (1528). He is also the first to have used infer in a sense close in meaning to imply (1533). Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until some time around the end of World War I. Since then, senses 3 and 4 of infer have been frequently condemned as an undesirable blurring of a useful distinction. The actual blurring has been done by the commentators. Sense 3, descended from More's use of 1533, does not occur with a personal subject. When objections arose, they were to a use with a personal subject (now sense 4). Since dictionaries did not recognize this use specifically, the objectors assumed that sense 3 was the one they found illogical, even though it had been in respectable use for four centuries. The actual usage condemned was a spoken one never used in logical discourse. At present sense 4 is found in print chiefly in letters to the editor and other informal prose, not in serious intellectual writing. The controversy over sense 4 has apparently reduced the frequency of use of sense 3.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. (inferred, inferring) (often foll. by that + clause) 1 deduce or conclude from facts and reasoning. 2 disp. imply, suggest. Derivatives: inferable adj. (also inferrable). Etymology: L inferre (as IN-(2), ferre bring)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Infer In*fer", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inferred; p. pr. & vb. n. Inferring.] [L. inferre to bring into, bring forward, occasion, infer; pref. in- in + ferre to carry, bring: cf. F. inf['e]rer. See 1 st Bear.] 1. To bring on; to induce; to occasion. [Obs.] --Harvey. 2. To offer, as violence. [Obs.] --Spenser. 3. To bring forward, or employ as an argument; to adduce; to allege; to offer. [Obs.] Full well hath Clifford played the orator, Inferring arguments of mighty force. --Shak. 4. To derive by deduction or by induction; to conclude or surmise from facts or premises; to accept or derive, as a consequence, conclusion, or probability; to imply; as, I inferred his determination from his silence. To infer is nothing but by virtue of one proposition laid down as true, to draw in another as true. --Locke. Such opportunities always infer obligations. --Atterbury. 5. To show; to manifest; to prove. [Obs.] The first part is not the proof of the second, but rather contrariwise, the second inferreth well the first. --Sir T. More. This doth infer the zeal I had to see him. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(infers, inferring, inferred) 1. If you infer that something is the case, you decide that it is true on the basis of information that you already have. I inferred from what she said that you have not been well... By measuring the motion of the galaxies in a cluster, astronomers can infer the cluster's mass. = deduce VERB: V that, V n 2. Some people use infer to mean 'imply', but many people consider this use to be incorrect. The police inferred that they found her behaviour rather suspicious. VERB: V that

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Deduce, conclude, collect, gather, consider probable.

Moby Thesaurus

allegorize, allude to, analyze, apply reason, assume, be afraid, believe, bring to mind, collect, conceive, conclude, connote, consider, daresay, deduce, deduct, deem, derive, divine, dope, draw, draw a conclusion, draw an inference, dream, entail, expect, extract, fancy, feel, fetch, find, gather, generalize, glean, grant, guess, hint, hypothesize, imagine, implicate, imply, import, induce, insinuate, intellectualize, intimate, involve, let, let be, logicalize, logicize, mean, mean to say, opine, philosophize, point indirectly to, prefigure, presume, presuppose, presurmise, provide a rationale, provisionally accept, rationalize, reason, reason that, reckon, repute, say, suggest, suppose, surmise, suspect, syllogize, synthesize, take, take as proved, take for, take for granted, take it, take to be, theorize, think, understand, use reason