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/əskrˈaɪb/ Listen

verb

Ascribe v. t. (past & past part. ascribed; pres. part. ascribing)

To attribute, impute, or refer, as to a cause; as, his death was ascribed to a poison; to ascribe an effect to the right cause; to ascribe such a book to such an author. "The finest (speech) that is ascribed to Satan in the whole poem."

To attribute, as a quality, or an appurtenance; to consider or allege to belong.

Synonyms: To Ascribe, Attribute, Impute. Attribute denotes, 1. To refer some quality or attribute to a being; as, to attribute power to God. 2. To refer something to its cause or source; as, to attribute a backward spring to icebergs off the coast. Ascribe is used equally in both these senses, but involves a different image. To impute usually denotes to ascribe something doubtful or wrong, and hence, in general literature, has commonly a bad sense; as, to impute unworthy motives. The theological sense of impute is not here taken into view. "More than good-will to me attribute naught." "Ascribes his gettings to his parts and merit." "And fairly quit him of the imputed blame."

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Etymology of 'Ascribe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ascribe" Quotes from Famous Books

... did not, as far as might be judged by results, affect my actual performances. But I am, nevertheless, in a chronic state of what the B.E.F. calls "wind up" on account of this exam. I am so eager to do well that the mere thought of failing is abhorrent. I am inclined to ascribe these feelings at ...

— War Letters of a Public-School Boy • Henry Paul Mainwaring Jones

... we ascribe some intrinsic power of judging about spiritual and moral matters to the ordinary human intellect, it would be a grievous mistake to assume that all men have an equal measure of this power. Because we assert that all moral and spiritual truth comes to men by {142} ...

— Philosophy and Religion - Six Lectures Delivered at Cambridge • Hastings Rashdall

... that roamed over mountain and plain have become wards of the Government, debased and denuded of whatever dignity they once possessed, ascribe what cause you will for their present condition. But the Pueblo Indian has absolutely maintained the integrity of his individuality, and is self-respecting and self-sufficient. He accepted the form of religion professed ...

— My Native Land • James Cox

... Those who ascribe to him a cold heart have judged him unfairly. It is not cold hearts in princes which give the most offense by their harshness. Such hearts are almost always gifted with the art of satisfying those about them by uniform graciousness and ...

— The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 • Various

... melancholia. In Heine's, on the other hand, the question of heredity has apparently only an indirect bearing upon his Weltschmerz. To what extent was his long and terrible disease of hereditary origin, and in what measure may we ascribe his Weltschmerz to the sufferings which that disease caused him? The first of these questions has been answered as conclusively as seems possible on the basis of all available data, by a doctor of medicine, S. Rahmer, ...

— Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry • Wilhelm Alfred Braun

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