Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Subject to or causing doubt.
- adjective Experiencing or showing doubt.
- adjective Of uncertain outcome; undecided.
- adjective Raising doubts as to legitimacy, honesty, or respectability; suspicious.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Full of doubt; having doubt; not settled in opinion.
- Causing doubt; dubious; ambiguous; uncertain; not distinct in character, meaning, or appearance; vague: as, a doubtful expression; a doubtful hue.
- Admitting of or subject to doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable.
- Of uncertain issue; precarious; shifting.
- Of questionable or suspected character.
- Fearful; apprehensive; suspicious.
- Indicating doubt; disturbed by doubt.
- In prosody, variable in quantity; capable of being pronounced or measured either as a long or as a short; common; dichronous.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating in belief; also used, metaphorically, of the body when its action is affected by such a state of mind.
- adjective Admitting of doubt; not obvious, clear, or certain; questionable; not decided; not easy to be defined, classed, or named.
- adjective Characterized by ambiguity; dubious
- adjective Of uncertain issue or event.
- adjective obsolete Fearful; apprehensive; suspicious.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Subject to, or
causing doubt - adjective
Experiencing orshowing doubt,sceptical - adjective
Undecided or ofuncertain outcome - adjective obsolete
Fearsome ,dreadful . - adjective
Improbable orunlikely - adjective
Suspicious , or ofdubious character - adjective
Unclear orunreliable
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective open to doubt or suspicion
- adjective fraught with uncertainty or doubt
- adjective unsettled in mind or opinion
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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England instead of despotic Russia, it is doubtful if he could work out his discovery of the electrotype -- we say _doubtful_; for, as far as we can learn, it seems hitherto judicially undecided whether the mere use of a patent, not for sale or a lucrative object, is such a use within the statute of James as would be an infringement of a patentee's rights.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. Various
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I currently am in doubtful mode, but I am willing to see what comes of this mixture.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 Gets Ready To SAW Audiences In October – Collider.com 2010
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Loans that remain overdue for 91 days or more can be classified as substandard, while those overdue for a year to three years are classified as doubtful.
RBI Asks Banks to Set Aside More Funds Against Bad Loans Nupur Acharya 2011
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It all sounds like a bunch of meaningless numbers used to push a candidate whose qualifications still remain doubtful to this day.
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But the prospects for the fund remain doubtful due to a number of potential hurdles.
Japan Considers Stimulus, Wealth Fund Takashi Nakamichi 2010
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I remain doubtful that society will ever produce parity enrollment between the genders in science and engineering.
Why Girls Don't Like Math Peggy 2009
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Hillary wins by 9% headlines – Hillary win doubtful, very suspicious, very sad
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Shall we see hope and fear in doubtful conflict poised, shall we see misgivings, forebodings of ill throng in our pathway, shall clouds obscure and foes enlist and wrath
Letter from Young John Allen to Mollie HoustonNovember 1, 1856 2008
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The fact that it was legally doubtful is irrelevant as long as it furthers the greater good of getting Republicans elected in Texas.
July 2004 2004
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Some people insist on using only “natural” fibers, but “natural” is a term of doubtful meaning in this context as in so many others.
HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005
chained_bear commented on the word doubtful
Etymology compared to that of dubious on that page.
January 8, 2009