Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To accept as true or real.
- intransitive verb To credit with veracity.
- intransitive verb To expect or suppose; think.
- intransitive verb To have firm faith, especially religious faith.
- intransitive verb To have faith, confidence, or trust.
- intransitive verb To have confidence in the truth or value of something.
- intransitive verb To have an opinion; think.
- idiom (believe (one's) ears) To trust what one has heard.
- idiom (believe (one's) eyes) To trust what one has seen.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To have faith or confidence.
- To exercise trust or confidence; rely through faith: generally with on.
- To be persuaded of the truth of anything; accept a doctrine, principle, system, etc., as true, or as an object of faith: with in: as, “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,” etc., Apostles' Crecd; to believe in Buddhism. See
belief . - To credit upon the ground of authority, testimony, argument, or any other ground than complete demonstration; accept as true; give credence to. See
belief . - To give credence to (a person making a statement, anything said, etc.).
- To expect or hope with confidence; trust.
- To be of opinion; think; understand: as, I believe he has left the city.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To exercise belief in; to credit upon the authority or testimony of another; to be persuaded of the truth of, upon evidence furnished by reasons, arguments, and deductions of the mind, or by circumstances other than personal knowledge; to regard or accept as true; to place confidence in; to think; to consider.
- intransitive verb To have a firm persuasion, esp. of the truths of religion; to have a persuasion approaching to certainty; to exercise belief or faith.
- intransitive verb To think; to suppose.
- intransitive verb To believe that the qualities or effects of an action or state are beneficial: as, to
believe in sea bathing, orin abstinence from alcoholic beverages. - intransitive verb to accept implicitly as an object of religious trust or obedience; to have faith in.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To think something is true without having proof or empirical evidence.
- verb transitive To accept that someone is telling the truth.
- verb transitive To accept as true.
- verb intransitive To have religious faith; to believe in a greater truth.
- verb transitive To consider likely.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer
- verb judge or regard; look upon; judge
- verb accept as true; take to be true
- verb be confident about something
- verb credit with veracity
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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_ Yes, yes, _said the other_, I believe she is: _But I believe_, said I, _You but taak'n all this while, for no Body mun do such things.
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Doubt strikes at the root of Justice and of Love -- not the doubt that is the half-brother to Disbelief, but the doubt which wonders always and always if we believe most easily what we _want to believe_, and if our firmest conviction against such Belief is not, more than anything else, yet one more manifestation of what we desire so earnestly _to doubt_.
Over the Fireside with Silent Friends Richard King 1913
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And while we believe that such efforts are praiseworthy for the reason that many persons must be first convinced in that way, still we feel that one must really _feel_ the truth of the doctrine from something within his own consciousness, before he will really _believe_ it to be truth.
A Series of Lessons in Gnani Yoga William Walker Atkinson 1897
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"Though your lady excelled, as much as your diamond, _I could not believe she excelled many_; that is, I too _could_ yet _believe that there are_ many _whom_ she did not excel."
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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And, for anyone else who is reading this, I believe if you load entities without a PK: EntityLoad (myEntity, primaryKey) ... and no entity is returned, I * believe* that
Fullasagoog 2010
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I'm not really sure debunking this stuff really accomplishes anything ... if someone wants to believe a candidate for president is a closet terrorist, that's * what they want to believe*, the rumors are just an excuse.
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_nobody_ would believe him, and who _could believe_ that in _a day_, almost without struggle, _all would be over_, and the past, the present, the future carried away on an unaccountable storm!
The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 A Selection from her Majesty's correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861 Queen of Great Britain Victoria 1860
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Nice job Pete - you even managed to get John to mention his "Milton" which I believe is code for book collection, but I could be wrong.
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In your descriptions of the personality of Moscow, you use the Russian word "naglost," which I believe translates as "an unseemly blend of arrogance and shamelessness."
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In your descriptions of the personality of Moscow, you use the Russian word "naglost," which I believe translates as "an unseemly blend of arrogance and shamelessness."
anydelirium commented on the word believe
'"My thesis is this: I want you to believe."
'"To believe what?"
'"To believe in things you cannot."' -Dracula, by Bram Stoker
February 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word believe
"Never believe anything until it's officially denied."
- Margaret Atwood
November 7, 2008