Assert
[ə'sɜːt] or [ə'sɝt]
Definition
(verb.) state categorically.
(verb.) insist on having one's opinions and rights recognized; 'Women should assert themselves more!'.
Inputed by Dan--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate.
(v. t.) To maintain; to defend.
(v. t.) To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties.
Editor: Wendell
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Affirm, declare, pronounce, express, aver, allege, asseverate, protest, avow, predicate, lay down.[2]. Vindicate, defend, claim, maintain, uphold.
Edited by Della
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Asseverate, declare, pronounce, depose, maintain, statement, avow, avouch,affirm, allege, protest, claim
ANT:Deny, contradict, contravene, waive, abandon
Edited by Abraham
Definition
v.t. to vindicate or defend by arguments or measures (now used only of the cause as object or reflexive): to declare strongly: to lay claim to or insist upon anything: to affirm: (rare) to bear evidence of.—adj. Assert′able.—ns. Assert′er Assert′or a champion one who makes a positive statement; Asser′tion affirmation: the act of claiming one's rights: averment.—adj. Assert′ive asserting or confirming confidently: positive: dogmatic.—adv. Assert′ively.—n. Assert′iveness.—adj. Assert′ory affirmative.—To assert one's self to defend one's rights or opinions sometimes with unnecessary zeal to thrust one's self forward.
Checked by Irving
Examples
- Then in a slow but effectual way he began to assert himself. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- That is the monstrous proposition which you are driven to assert, if you attempt to associate the disappearance of the Moonstone with Franklin Blake. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- She thought he did well to assert his own will, but she wished that will to have been more intelligible to the multitude. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Now this I assert to be entirely the present case. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- I never could, even in forming a common acquaintance, assert or prove a claim to average quickness. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Certainly, I can: and your friend will unhesitatingly confirm the truth of what I assert. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- In that case there is no need for me to write about the trumpery scandal by which I was the sufferer--the innocent sufferer, I positively assert. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- A cursory examination of the latter revealed no mortal injuries and after a brief rest he asserted that he felt fit to attempt the return voyage. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Having now asserted my independence in a proper manner, I may come to how do you find yourself, and I hope you're pretty well. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- God knows, I put my trust in his vows, and believe his asserted faith--but for that, I would not seek what I am now resolved to attain. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Already the common sense of the natural political map had asserted itself. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- This agency of the supreme Being we know to have been asserted by [As father Malebranche and other Cartesians. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Whatever might be the truth about all this misery, there was one dread which asserted itself. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I believe it scarce will be asserted, that the first species of reasoning alone is ever the cause of any action. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Now that medical attendance was no longer indispensable, I played the first move in the game by asserting myself against the doctor. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- But there was a strange tension, an emphasis, as if they were asserting their wishes, against the truth. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- They were solid, too, in asserting that no prohibition could prevent their exportation, when private people found any advantage in exporting them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- He too seemed, by his manners, to have entered a little more on the way of humility; he was quieter, and less self-asserting. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- It was getting stronger, it was re-asserting itself, the inviolable moon. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Her heart tried to persist in asserting that George Osborne was worthy and faithful to her, though she knew otherwise. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- A Buffer, suddenly astounding the other three, by detaching himself, and asserting individuality, inquires: 'How discovered, and why? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- And Franklin Blake's innocence, as you have just seen, unanswerably asserts itself. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Mr. Tulkinghorn re-asserts it by another inclination of his head. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- De Candolle asserts that it is only in the Euphrates-Tigris district that wheat has ever been found growing wild. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It asserts the liberty of conscience, in behalf of the Anabaptists, the Quakers, and other sectarians that had been persecuted. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- None of the gre at writers of Europe, he asserts, have been the adherents of the traditional faith. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- He asserts that the function of the forked twig in the hands of the water-finder may be to act as an indicator of some material or other mental disturbance within him. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- At least there is no opposition to YOU, Volumnia asserts with confidence. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
Editor: Roxanne