— guessable , adj. — guesser , n. — guessingly , adv.
/ges/ , v.t.
1. to arrive at or commit oneself to an opinion about (something) without having sufficient evidence to support the opinion fully: to guess a person's weight.
2. to estimate or conjecture about correctly: to guess what a word means.
3. to think, believe, or suppose: I guess I can get there in time.
v.i.
4. to form an estimate or conjecture (often fol. by at or about ): We guessed at the weight of the package.
5. to estimate or conjecture correctly.
n.
6. an opinion that one reaches or to which one commits oneself on the basis of probability alone or in the absence of any evidence whatever.
7. the act of forming such an opinion: to take a guess at someone's weight.
8. by guess and by gosh , Northern U.S. using a combination of guesswork and reliance on luck; hit or miss.
Also, by guess and by golly .
[ 1300-50; (v.) ME gessen, perh. gissa, MLG gissen, MD gessen, ON geta; (n.) ME gesse, deriv. of the v. See GET ]
Syn. 1. hazard. 1, 2, 4 . GUESS, GUESS AT, CONJECTURE, SURMISE imply attempting to form an opinion as to the probable. To GUESS is to risk an opinion regarding something one does not know about, or, wholly or partly by chance, to arrive at the correct answer to a question: to guess the outcome of a game. GUESS AT implies more haphazard or random guessing: to guess at the solution of a crime. To CONJECTURE is to make inferences in the absence of sufficient evidence to establish certainty: to conjecture the circumstances of the crime. SURMISE implies making an intuitive conjecture that may or may not be correct: to surmise the motives that led to it. 3. fancy, imagine. 6. supposition.
Ant. 3. know.