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/spˈɛkjəlˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Speculate v. t. To consider attentively; as, to speculate the nature of a thing. (R.)

Speculate v. i. (past & past part. speculated; pres. part. speculating)

To consider by turning a subject in the mind, and viewing it in its different aspects and relations; to meditate; to contemplate; to theorize; as, to speculate on questions in religion; to speculate on political events. "It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most pefect quietude to the external regulations of society."

(Philos.) To view subjects from certain premises given or assumed, and infer conclusions respecting them a priori.

(Com.) To purchase with the expectation of a contingent advance in value, and a consequent sale at a profit; often, in a somewhat depreciative sense, of unsound or hazardous transactions; as, to speculate in coffee, in sugar, or in bank stock.

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Etymology of 'Speculate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Speculate" Quotes from Famous Books

... with the jovial countenance, and doubtless genial ways, had the right to stand at her dressing-table, if he chose, and speculate upon the various uses of all the daintiness that was spread before him. He had the right and cared nothing for it, while the man who did care, stood there shamefaced, all at once feeling himself an ...

— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed

... appear to be so isolated, and so unconnected with their brethren of South Greenland, as to justify us in connecting them rather with the numerous ruined habitations found westward as far as Melville Island, and lead the mind to speculate upon some more northern region,—some terra incognita, yet to be visited by us,—encourages us, aye, urges us not to halt in our exploration. Humanity and science are united in the cause: where one falters, let a love for the other ...

— Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; • Sherard Osborn

... the room, as she often had of late, and began to enumerate its possibilities in case she should desire to have it changed. Amelia never went so far as to say that change should be; she only felt that she had still a right to speculate upon it, as she had done for many years, as a form of harmless enjoyment. While every other house in the neighborhood had gone from the consistently good to the prosperously bad in the matter of refurnishing, John Porter had kept his precisely as his grandfather ...

— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown

... issues of the present campaign, and upon them it may be bootless to speculate. No one may foretell the fortunes of war—I mean where victory will ultimately perch in this frightful struggle. We are environed and invaded by not less than 600,000 men in arms, and we have not in the field more than 250,000 to oppose them. But ...

— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... should have been his a year before, and an interest in it. Only now for the first time did he take the trouble to learn the real meaning of resources and liabilities; to estimate profit and loss; to speculate upon success in the business which he found rather larger than he had suspected. He called a round-up to learn to the head how many steers and cows and calves carried the Bar L-M brand. He brought a quick look of surprise that was close to suspicion into Garth's eyes by asking casually just what ...

— The Short Cut • Jackson Gregory

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