think
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken, thenchen, from Old English þenċan, þenċean (“to think”), from Proto-Germanic *þankijaną (“to think, suppose, perceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think, feel, know”). Cognate with Scots think, thynk (“to think”), North Frisian teenk, taanke, tanke, tånke (“to think”), Saterland Frisian toanke (“to think”), West Frisian tinke (“to think”), Dutch denken (“to think”), Afrikaans dink (“to think”), Low German denken (“to think”), dinken, German denken (“to think”), Danish tænke (“to think”), Swedish tänka (“to think”), Norwegian Bokmål tenke (“to think”), Norwegian Nynorsk tenkja (“to think”), Icelandic þekkja (“to know, recognise, identify, perceive”), Latin tongeō (“know”).
VerbEdit
think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)
- (transitive) To ponder, to go over in one's head.
- Idly, the detective thought what his next move should be.
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
- So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
- (intransitive) To communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.
- I thought for three hours about the problem and still couldn’t find the solution.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”
- (intransitive) To conceive of something or someone (usually followed by of; infrequently, by on).
- I tend to think of her as rather ugly.
- 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
- Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
- (transitive) To be of opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.
- At the time I thought his adamant refusal to give in right.
- I hope you won’t think me stupid if I ask you what that means.
- I think she is pretty, contrary to most people.
- c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii], page 255, column 2:
- My brother he is in Elizium, / Perchance he is not drown'd: What thinke you, ſaylors?.
- 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IX. "The Sea and the Desert", page 182.
- […] one man showed me a young oak which he had transplanted from behind the town, thinking it an apple-tree.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 3, in The Celebrity:
- Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
- (transitive) To guess; to reckon.
- I think she’ll pass the examination.
- To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).
- 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662:
- The cupbearer shrugged up his shoulders in displeasure. "I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber," said he […]
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
- “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
- To presume; to venture.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Matthew 3:9:
- Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
ConjugationEdit
infinitive | think | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
present participle | thinking | ||||||||||
past participle | thought | ||||||||||
simple | progressive | perfect | perfect progressive | ||||||||
present | I think | we think | I am thinking | we are thinking | I have thought | we have thought | I have been thinking | we have been thinking | |||
you think | you think | you are thinking | you are thinking | you have thought | you have thought | you have been thinking | you have been thinking | ||||
he thinks | they think | he is thinking | they are thinking | he has thought | they have thought | he has been thinking | they have been thinking | ||||
past | I thought | we thought | I was thinking | we were thinking | I had thought | we had thought | I had been thinking | we had been thinking | |||
you thought | you thought | you were thinking | you were thinking | you had thought | you had thought | you had been thinking | you had been thinking | ||||
he thought | they thought | he was thinking | they were thinking | he had thought | they had thought | he had been thinking | they had been thinking | ||||
future | I will think | we will think | I will be thinking | we will be thinking | I will have thought | we will have thought | I will have been thinking | we will have been thinking | |||
you will think | you will think | you will be thinking | you will be thinking | you will have thought | you will have thought | you will have been thinking | you will have been thinking | ||||
he will think | they will think | he will be thinking | they will be thinking | he will have thought | they will have thought | he will have been thinking | they will have been thinking | ||||
conditional | I would think | we would think | I would be thinking | we would be thinking | I would have thought | we would have thought | I would have been thinking | we would have been thinking | |||
you would think | you would think | you would be thinking | you would be thinking | you would have thought | you would have thought | you would have been thinking | you would have been thinking | ||||
he would think | they would think | he would be thinking | they would be thinking | he would have thought | they would have thought | he would have been thinking | they would have been thinking | ||||
imperative | think |
SynonymsEdit
- (ponder): See Thesaurus:ponder
- (communicate to oneself in one's mind): See Thesaurus:think
- (be of the opinion (that)): See Thesaurus:have opinion
- (guess, reckon): guess See Thesaurus:suppose
- (consider, judge, regard something as): See Thesaurus:deem
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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NounEdit
think (usually uncountable, plural thinks)
- (chiefly Britain) An act of thinking; consideration (of something).
- I'll have a think about that and let you know.
Derived termsEdit
- groupthink
- have another think coming
- rethink (noun, as in "have a rethink")
- wrongthink
TranslationsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken (also thinchen, thünchen), from Old English þyncan (“to seem, appear”), from Proto-Germanic *þunkijaną (“to seem”). Cognate with Dutch dunken (“to seem, appear”), German dünken (“to seem, appear”), Danish tykkes (“to seem”), Swedish tycka (“to seem, think, regard”), Icelandic þykja (“to be regarded, be considered, seem”). More at methinks.
VerbEdit
think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)
- (obsolete except in methinks) To seem, to appear.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV:
- And whanne syr launcelot sawe he myghte not ryde vp in to the montayne / he there alyghte vnder an Appel tree / […] / And then he leid hym doune to slepe / And thenne hym thoughte there came an old man afore hym / the whiche sayd A launcelot of euylle feythe and poure byleue / wherfor is thy wille tourned soo lyghtely toward thy dedely synne
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV:
TranslationsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Wolfram, Walt and Donna Christian. 1976. Appalachian speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.
ScotsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From earlier thynk, from Middle English thynken, thinken, from Old English þencan, þenċean.
VerbEdit
think (third-person singular present thinks, present participle thinking, past thocht, past participle thocht)
- (transitive) to think, to conceive, to have in mind
- (transitive) to believe, to hold as an opinion, to judge; to feel, to have as an emotion
- 1895, Ian Maclaren, A Doctor of the Old School, page 175:
- He hed juist ae faut, tae ma thinkin’, for a’ never jidged the waur o’ him for his titch of rochness—guid trees hae gnarled bark—but he thotched ower little o’ himsel’.
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- (transitive or intransitive) to ponder, to meditate, to consider, to reflect on
- (transitive or intransitive) to have scruples, to doubt, to reconsider
- 1924, Marion Angus, “Think Lang”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- Lassie, think lang, think lang, / Ere his step comes ower the hill. / Luve gi’es wi’ a launch an’ a sang, / An’ whiles for nocht bit ill.
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- to devise, to work out, to contrive
- (archaic, with shame) to be ashamed
- 1853, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch, page 225:
- Think shame—think shame—think black-burning shame o’ yoursell, ye born and bred ruffian!
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
NounEdit
think (plural thinks)
ReferencesEdit
- “think” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 19 June 2018.