All 4 Uses of
opine
in
Moby Dick
- When, as I opine, in the course of time, the true nature of spermaceti became known, its original name was still retained by the dealers; no doubt to enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity.†
Chpt 31-33 *opine = to express one's opinion
- Nor have there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver—an inflated bag of wind—which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was saved from a watery doom.†
Chpt 82-84opined = expressed an opinion
- It has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole; if it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water, then I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of smell seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at all answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so clogged with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power of smelling.†
Chpt 85-87opine = to express one's opinion
- I opine, that it is plainly traceable to the first arrival of the Greenland whaling ships in London, more than two centuries ago.†
Chpt 91-93
Definitions:
-
(1)
(opine) to express one's opinion
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus