Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb Used to indicate uncertainty or possibility.
- noun An uncertainty.
- noun An uncertain reply.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Perhaps; possibly; probably.
- Possible; uncertain.
- noun Something that may be or happen; a possibility or probability.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb Perhaps; possibly; peradventure.
- adjective rare Possible; probable, but not sure.
- noun rare Possibility; uncertainty.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb Modifies a verb, indicating a lack of certainty.
- adverb perhaps that is true (expressing no commitment to a decision or a neutral viewpoint to a statement)
- adjective
Possible ;uncertain . - noun informal Something that is possibly true.
- noun informal An answer that shows neither agreement nor disagreement.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb by chance
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We get maybe, *maybe*, one good week a month as women.
Don't Sweat It 2008
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Now I'll let it sit and ferment for a week or so until I don't know each page by heart and can maybe, _maybe_, see the typos in front of my face.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul -- Government division jhetley 2005
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Sony's Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX offers an industry leading 30MB per second transfer rate, which means Handycam users can upload video clips in a fraction of actual playback time. maybe, * maybe* reconsidering my planned Pentax K7-for-multi-lens-video purchase ....
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The crowd was going wild here in Venice, it was a time before the war, when something was twirling down from up high, maybe a screw from a gas socket, a technician adjusting a light over ringside, sheer clumsiness but making pressure waves as only in the air a disturbance could in those days, maybe a harbinger of something dark and brooding over the borders of Europe, maybe the Belgian border, a border where history tells us that Eddy Merckx's grandmother was at that hour going into her labour.
zola V mann eamon byrne 2010
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David, Just wanted to say Thanks for the entertainment you have provided for the last 6 months or so...its been great for me as it allowed me the opportunity to just kind of escape for a little while when I would read your blogs and just try envision it all..and perhaps maybe in several years when my girls are off to college and I can think about some great adventure for myself..maybe not as wild as yours but hopefully just as enlightening.
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Both on the ease with which the female sailor has been made a mouthpiece, and how the goal is for the Iranians to throw enough confusing shit up in the air through her mouth and letters that both the Left and enemy-lovers like Freder are quick to start "well, maybe there IS something to the Turney confessions..maybe we are in a situation of moral equivalency"
"And when the captured British sailor admits she 'trespassed' into Iranian waters, there is fear in her eyes." Ann Althouse 2007
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Do you even know, can you know, what that missed opportunity means to her kids, or her family, or maybe her friends..maybe she’s very very obese, and you could have bothered a little bit more, and made a massive impact?
Are we meat eaters or vegetarians? Part I | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2009
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When I couldn't see why, he told me about investigations he had his men, like I'm going to be, make, and sometimes they get a 'scoop' on the men appointed to do the job, and he told me he had a 'scoop' on this, and if I saw trouble coming toward my boss, I was to tell him and maybe -- he didn't say sure, but _maybe_ he'd do something. "
Michael O'Halloran Gene Stratton-Porter 1893
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Nobody will know it till then, and maybe -- _maybe_ I shall be dead by that time, or the world will burn up! "
Lill's Travels in Santa Claus Land And Other Stories Sophie May Farman 1872
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Right now I'd only rather have Fitzgerald or A. Johnson than him (maybe, * maybe*
unknown title 2009
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