I. ˈges verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
Etymology: Middle English gessen, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Icelandic gizka to guess, Norwegian & Swedish gissa; akin to Middle Dutch gissen, gessen to guess, Middle Low German gissen to guess, Old Norse geta to get, guess — more at get
transitive verb
1. : to form a judgment or opinion of without knowledge or often without means of knowledge:
a. : to form an opinion of from insufficient, uncertain, or ambiguous evidence or on grounds of probability alone : conjecture , estimate , surmise
could only guess what the final result of this study would be
guessed his age and missed by five years
correctly guessed the height of the building
looked at the sky and guessed that there would be rain before morning
: assume , deduce , infer
the theory has first to be guessed, and its consequences drawn out and tested afterwards — Maurice Cranston & J.W.N.Watkins
what can be deduced and guessed from these quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore — A.M.Young
b. : to form an opinion of without evidence : make a random judgment or supposition concerning
amused themselves by guessing the identity of their fellow passengers
a prize for guessing correctly the number of beans in a beanbag
guess which hand holds a coin
2. : to conjecture correctly:
a. : to hit upon or solve by a conjecture : arrive at (a correct answer or solution) partly or solely by chance or intuition
guessed my age the first time
an amazing ability at guessing riddles
an attempt to guess the acrostic with more than half the lines unsolved — J.E.S.Thompson
new words can be guessed, shades of meaning deduced from a second reading — J.M.Barzun
b. : to form a true or proper opinion of especially without pertinent knowledge of one's own : conceive , divine , gather
an objective the full nature of which may not have been guessed — Mary Austin
enough is said for the reader to guess something of what it must have meant to stand at last on the summit of the world — E.F.Norton
3. : believe , imagine , suppose , think — usually used with an objective clause or with so
guess I'll go to bed
said he guessed he knew as much as the next man
thought for a moment and then answered that he guessed so
what saved him, I guess , was his unfaltering sense of the ridiculous — Giles Romilly
intransitive verb
: to make a guess : form a random judgment : conjecture
if you don't know the answers, guess
a matter we can only guess about
guessed wrong
guessed at the probable outcome of the discussions
Synonyms: see conjecture
II. noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English gesse, from gessen, v.
: an opinion formed without sufficient or decisive evidence or grounds : conjecture , surmise
when he had made his scientific guess , his hypothesis, he computed what ought to happen, if it were true, in certain definite cases — Josiah Royce
•
- by guess and by god
III. adjective
Etymology: probably from Dutch gust, from Middle Dutch; akin to Low German gũste barren, EFrisian gũst, geste barren, Old High German geisinī barrenness — more at geason
dialect England , of a cow or ewe : barren , dry