I. intransitive verb
( thought ; thought ; thinking ; thinks )
Etymology: Middle English thinken (past thoughte ), from Old English thyncan (past thūhte, past participle gethūht ); akin to Old High German dunken to seem (past dūhta, past participle gidūht ), Old Norse thykkja (past thōtti, past participle thōtt ), Gothic thunkjan (past thūhta ), Latin tongēre to know
obsolete : seem , appear — usually used impersonally
him thought that in his depth of sleep he saw a soldier armed — Thomas Heywood
— compare methinks
II. ˈthiŋk verb
( thought ˈthȯt, usu -ȯd.+V ; or dialect thunk ˈthəŋk ; thought or dialect thunk ; thinking ; thinks )
Etymology: Middle English thenken (past thoughte, past participle thought, ythought ), from Old English thencan (past thōhte, past participle gethōht ); akin to Old High German denken to think (past dāhta, past participle gidāht ), Old Norse thekkja to perceive (past thātti ), Gothic thankjan to deliberate (past thāhta ), Latin tongēre to know — more at thank
transitive verb
1.
a. : to form or have (as a thought) in the mind
few people think accurately — and think things not words — O.W.Holmes †1935
“an evil bird,” he thought — Louis Bromfield
ashamed to think how easily we capitulate — R.W.Emerson
b. dialect chiefly Britain : feel 2b
men should think shame to be less heroic — Gilbert Highet
2. : to have in one's mind as an intention or desire : intend , hope
thought to return early
yet manhood remained to act the thing I thought — P.B.Shelley
3.
a.
(1) : to have as an opinion : believe
thought the question might arise — F.J.Haskin
a fine performance, he thought
(2) : to have as an opinion without sufficient basis in fact
comes to think that the prison is the world — J.B.Priestley
we know, or think we know, … the critical method — T.S.Eliot
was first thought to have drowned — Time
b. : to regard as : take for : consider
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper — U.S. Constitution
think it not unfair to suggest — Virgil Thomson
put a copy on order … if you think it your kind of book — Times Literary Supplement
4.
a. : to reflect on : ponder
these deeds must not be thought after these ways — Shakespeare
think what their children would be — E.T.Thurston
— often used with over
said he would think the matter over
b. : to determine by reflecting
was thinking what to do next
— often used with out
parents must think out for themselves what this means to their own young — Dorothy Barclay
5. : to call to mind : remember
thought to ask him the trick of it — Anne S. Mehdevi
6. : to create or devise by thinking
the Almighty … thought the archetypes of all things and devised their variations — William James
— usually used with out or up
remain calm and think out a solution — James Hewitt
thought up a caption that exactly covered the whole idea — William Murrell
7.
a. obsolete : suspect
he, thinking no harm, agreed — Daniel Defoe
b. : expect
thought to find him at home
8. : to believe to exist
there be who think not God at all — John Milton
9. : to bring (as into a specified position or condition) by thinking
a novelist has thought … characters into existence — Bernard DeVoto
learned to think his feelings by way of French symbolism — Harold Rosenberg
10.
a.
(1) : to center one's thoughts on : have one's mind full of
talks and thinks nothing but airplanes
(2) : to be imbued with the thoughts and the ways of thinking that are characteristic of a people or a group
many white men … were thinking black and advocating absolute equality between the two races — Cape Times
b. : to bring before one's mind clearly (as by imagining or recalling) : form a metal picture of
found it difficult to think infinity
11. : to subject to the processes of logical thought especially in order to reach a conclusion — usually used with out or through
wanted to be left alone to think things out — Victoria Sackville-West
always thinks the problems through before acting
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to exercise the powers of judgment, conception, or inference as distinguished from simple sense perception
it is the power to think which makes us human — Vicki Baum
b.
(1) : to exercise the powers of thought with regard to a particular matter
would do well to think again — J.F.Golay
will think twice before he risks another defeat — L.C.Douglas
— often used with a preposition (as about, of, or on )
the American child is taught to think about each situation as it comes up — Margaret Mead
(2) : to call an idea (as of a possible solution or a device) to mind by mental effort — usually used with of
the best plan they could think of was to leave
2.
a. : to have the mind engaged in reflection : meditate — usually used with a preposition (as about, of, on, or upon )
enabled me to think with tender affection upon her loyalty and devotion — Nashville Tennessean
b.
(1) : to have something (as a plan) in the mind — usually used with of or about
the department is thinking of opening new message centers — Armand Schwab
(2) : to consider the suitability (as of a person under consideration for a vacant position) — usually used with of
thought of him for the presidential nomination
3.
a.
(1) : to have a thought in the mind : have a thought come into the mind — usually used with of
thought of his old home when he saw the house
(2) : to have or form a particular idea : regard — usually used with of and as
will think of himself as a painter — Thomas Munro
was to think of nothing as being his own — K.S.Latourette
b. : to have an opinion — usually used with of and an adverb or an adverbial phrase that indicates the kind of opinion
thought well of him — Carol L. Thompson
thinks a great deal of his physician — Walt Whitman
thinks nothing of his brother
4. : to have consideration, regard, or concern — usually used with of
a man must think of his family, his realm, his empire — Francis Hackett
5. : to be aware (as of the future) : expect , suspect
may strike when you least think
— sometimes used with for
will get along better than he thinks for — Walt Whitman
Synonyms:
speculate , reflect , reason , deliberate , cogitate : think is a general term, nearly always capable of being substituted for any of the following terms. speculate is often used in reference to thought, logical and analytic or not, on that on which certainty is impossible or unlikely
what caused the Mound Builder culture … to die out? We can only speculate — R.W.Murray
in times of peace the specialist of war … may only speculate about the effect of new weapons — S.L.A.Marshall
reflect is likely to suggest an unhurried contemplative consideration involving recall and reexamination
she could reflect in long, sane meditations above the uneasy sea of her pain — Arnold Bennett
the standpoint of the man who did not criticize or reflect, but accepted simply — G.L.Dickinson
reason indicates careful attention to rational or logical thought sequences, to orderly thought processes from evidence or premise to conclusion
Lincoln's way with any problem was to examine it from all sides and reason it out intellectually — Ruth P. Randall
perhaps a close study of the behavior of very young children … may provide some valuable hints, but it seems dangerous to reason from such experiments — Edward Sapir
found himself reasoning in a circle
deliberate implies a pondering with careful thought, unhurried procedure, and fair consideration of various aspects
a nationwide representative assembly, with power to deliberate although not actually to make laws — F.A.Ogg & Harold Zink
the future relations of the two countries could now be deliberated on with a hope of settlement — J.A.Froude
cogitate indicates deep, intent, sometimes labored thinking
cogitating over the problem for hours
cogitated about the question a noticeable time before answering
Synonyms:
conceive , imagine , fancy , realize , envisage , envision : think , often general and not specific, may indicate merely the mental harboring of an idea; it may imply conscious mental effort to achieve a definite picture or clear impression
helpful to think of two economic systems operating simultaneously throughtout rural parts of the Northeast — P.E.James
found church a very good place for thinking her love affairs into their right proportion — Sheila Kaye-Smith
conceive may imply forming an idea and nurturing and developing it to serviceable fullness as a concept
for the poem Coleridge conceived in theory as well as evolved in practice a quantitative metric — W.R.Parker
now conceived a plan of returning to France and obtaining a force to conquer Canada — J.C.Fitzpatrick
imagine may imply the process of free mental visualization or pictorialization that is often vivid, relatively unguided, and unchecked by rationality
a marvelously imagined description of the state of blessed souls — H.O.Taylor
by burning or otherwise destroying the image he imagines that he kills his foe — J.G.Frazer
could imagine easily original plots for stories or plays, but never received any impulse to write them — G.W.Russell
fancy , often interchangeable with imagine , may imply a dreamy, indulgent fondness for unguided contemplation of the unreal
fancied he saw them take each other's hands and dance a strange and monstrous dance, the dance of the Annihilation of All Life — J.C.Powys
who fancied she had been transferred to a fairy palace — William Black
realize suggests a vividness of conception or imagination whereby a grasp is attained of the significance of the matter being thought about
saw a tin lamp burning kerosene, and realized its possibilities — Allan Nevins
burning with the passion of infinitely realized and therefore eternally restless love — W.L.Sullivan
envisage and envision may imply a clarity of conception or imagination with clear-cut detail
had a flair for envisaging the possible molecular structures of compounds — S.F.Mason
envisaged the flat land beyond the Alps in Lombardy as he later envisaged Catalonia beyond the Pyrenees and the right bank of the Middle Rhine, not as country to be conquered but as a belt of protection beyond a frontier — Hilaire Belloc
includes the territories envisioned by the tsarist planners of 1914-16 as part of the Russian empire — D.J.Dallin
the approaching truck driver tramped down hard; brakes squealed; the photographer momentarily envisioned a smashed truck and mangled driver — G.R.Stewart
those early predictors who envisioned great ports in the shores of Lake Pontchartrain — American Guide Series: Louisiana
•
- think better of
- think long
- think much
III. noun
( -s )
1. : an act of thinking
has to make up his mind in a deep hard think — Jerome Ellison
if he thinks he can fool me, he as another think coming
2. : something (as an idea or opinion) that is thought
let's exchange thinks
IV. adjective
1. : of or relating to thinking: as
a. — used for thinking
b. : appealing to the mind
a new think film
2. : of or relating to think pieces
a frequently quoted think columnist