All 9 Uses of
conjecture
in
The Mayor of Casterbridge
- It fell in well with conjectures of a temperament which would have no pity for weakness, but would be ready to yield ungrudging admiration to greatness and strength.†
Chpt 5conjectures = guesses (opinions based on inconclusive evidence)
- He was mostly found lying on his side, in an oval scoop in the chalk, like a chicken in its shell; his knees drawn up to his chest; sometimes with the remains of his spear against his arm, a fibula or brooch of bronze on his breast or forehead, an urn at his knees, a jar at his throat, a bottle at his mouth; and mystified conjecture pouring down upon him from the eyes of Casterbridge street boys and men, who had turned a moment to gaze at the familiar spectacle as they passed by.†
Chpt 11
- Her conjectures on that past never went further than faint ones based on things casually heard and seen—mere guesses that Henchard and her mother might have been lovers in their younger days, who had quarrelled and parted.†
Chpt 14conjectures = guesses (opinions based on inconclusive evidence)
- Indoors she fell to conjecturing the meaning of Farfrae's enigmatic words about not daring to ask her what he fain would.†
Chpt 17conjecturing = concluding or guessing based on inconclusive evidence
- He took it up in his hands and looked at it as at a picture, a vision, a vista of past enactments; and then he read it as an unimportant finale to conjecture.†
Chpt 18
- A conjecture that her visitor might be some other person had, indeed, flashed through Lucetta's mind when she was on the point of bursting out; but it was just too late to recede.†
Chpt 23
- Henchard left the house with a ton of conjecture, though without a grain of proof, that the counterattraction was Farfrae; and therefore he would not make up his mind.†
Chpt 26
- Sneering at himself for his weakness he yet every hour—nay, every few minutes—conjectured her actions for the time being—her sitting down and rising up, her goings and comings, till thought of Newson's and Farfrae's counter-influence would pass like a cold blast over a pool, and efface her image.†
Chpt 44conjectured = concluded or guessed based on inconclusive evidence
- The door was ajar; Farfrae knocked; and he who stood before them was Whittle, as they had conjectured.
Chpt 45 *conjectured = guessed (formed an opinion based on inconclusive evidence)
Definition:
a conclusion or opinion based on inconclusive evidence; or the act of forming of such a conclusion or opinion
A conjecture can be widely believed, but the word is also frequently used to imply that evidence is insufficient to support a belief.