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PRESUMPTION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A kind of discourtesy in the form of an act of presuming
Example:
his presumption was intolerable
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("presumption" is a kind of...):
discourtesy; offence; offense; offensive activity (a lack of politeness; a failure to show regard for others; wounding the feelings or others)
Derivation:
presume (take liberties or act with too much confidence)
presume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)
presume (take upon oneself; act presumptuously, without permission)
presumptuous (excessively forward)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Audacious (even arrogant) behavior that you have no right to
Example:
he despised them for their presumptuousness
Synonyms:
assumption; effrontery; presumption; presumptuousness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("presumption" is a kind of...):
audaciousness; audacity (aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "presumption"):
uppishness; uppityness (assumption of airs beyond one's station)
Derivation:
presume (take liberties or act with too much confidence)
presumptuous (excessively forward)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(law) an inference of the truth of a fact from other facts proved or admitted or judicially noticed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("presumption" is a kind of...):
illation; inference (the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Derivation:
presume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An assumption that is taken for granted
Synonyms:
given; precondition; presumption
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("presumption" is a kind of...):
assumption; supposal; supposition (a hypothesis that is taken for granted)
Derivation:
presume (take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof)
Context examples:
He could not help regarding my exclamation as a presumption of my guilt and said in rather a severe tone, “I should have thought, young man, that the presence of your father would have been welcome instead of inspiring such violent repugnance.”
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Yaas, to be sure I do, drawled Lord Ingram; and the poor old stick used to cry out 'Oh you villains childs!'—and then we sermonised her on the presumption of attempting to teach such clever blades as we were, when she was herself so ignorant.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Oh! Miss Woodhouse, believe me I have not the presumption to suppose— Indeed I am not so mad.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
That is the most unpromising circumstance, the strongest presumption against him.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
In the first place, we may start with a strong presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for leaving America.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To call or to fancy it a loss, a disappointment, would be a presumption for which she had not words strong enough to satisfy her own humility.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Oh! but their removing from the chaise into a hackney coach is such a presumption!
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
You are no stranger to the fact, that there have been periods of my life, when it has been requisite that I should pause, until certain expected events should turn up; when it has been necessary that I should fall back, before making what I trust I shall not be accused of presumption in terming—a spring.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Did any one indeed exist, except I, the creator, who would believe, unless his senses convinced him, in the existence of the living monument of presumption and rash ignorance which I had let loose upon the world?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He might have doubled his presumption to me—but poor Harriet!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
