Library / English Dictionary

PREMISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn

Example:

on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not play

Synonyms:

assumption; premise; premiss

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("premise" is a kind of...):

posit; postulate ((logic) a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "premise"):

major premise; major premiss (the premise of a syllogism that contains the major term (which is the predicate of the conclusion))

minor premise; minor premiss; subsumption (the premise of a syllogism that contains the minor term (which is the subject of the conclusion))

thesis (an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument)

condition; precondition; stipulation (an assumption on which rests the validity or effect of something else)

scenario (a postulated sequence of possible events)

Derivation:

premise (take something as preexisting and given)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take something as preexisting and given

Synonyms:

premise; premiss

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "premise" is one way to...):

presuppose; suppose (take for granted or as a given; suppose beforehand)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

premise (a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Furnish with a preface or introduction

Example:

He prefaced his lecture with a critical remark about the institution

Synonyms:

introduce; precede; preface; premise

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "premise" is one way to...):

say; state; tell (express in words)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "premise"):

preamble (make a preliminary introduction, usually to a formal document)

prologise; prologize; prologuize (write or speak a prologue)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Set forth beforehand, often as an explanation

Example:

He premised these remarks so that his readers might understand

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "premise" is one way to...):

exposit; expound; set forth (state)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Dick, perforce, had to go through a few stiff formalities at first, after which he calmly accepted White Fang as an addition to the premises.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is based on the premise that regions adjacent to a gene of interest are transmitted through the generations along with that gene and can be identified by the specific pattern of markers (haplotypes) that they contain, so that detection of haplotypes that are shared more frequently among groups of individuals recruited for a disease or trait can be used to locate specific genes.

(Linkage Disequilibrium Mapping, NCI Thesaurus)

The premises are before you.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I think the house and premises may be made comfortable, and given the air of a gentleman's residence, without any very heavy expense, and that must suffice me; and, I hope, may suffice all who care about me.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And here let me premise that if any of the elders think there is too much 'lovering' in the story, as I fear they may (I'm not afraid the young folks will make that objection), I can only say with Mrs. March, What can you expect when I have four gay girls in the house, and a dashing young neighbor over the way?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Uppercross was a moderate-sized village, which a few years back had been completely in the old English style, containing only two houses superior in appearance to those of the yeomen and labourers; the mansion of the squire, with its high walls, great gates, and old trees, substantial and unmodernized, and the compact, tight parsonage, enclosed in its own neat garden, with a vine and a pear-tree trained round its casements; but upon the marriage of the young 'squire, it had received the improvement of a farm-house elevated into a cottage, for his residence, and Uppercross Cottage, with its veranda, French windows, and other prettiness, was quite as likely to catch the traveller's eye as the more consistent and considerable aspect and premises of the Great House, about a quarter of a mile farther on.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house, on an excursion through its more immediate premises; and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away, in lounging round the kitchen garden, examining the bloom upon its walls, and listening to the gardener's lamentations upon blights, in dawdling through the green-house, where the loss of her favourite plants, unwarily exposed, and nipped by the lingering frost, raised the laughter of Charlotte,—and in visiting her poultry-yard, where, in the disappointed hopes of her dairy-maid, by hens forsaking their nests, or being stolen by a fox, or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood, she found fresh sources of merriment.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

After premising thus much, it would be a work of supererogation to add, that dust and ashes are for ever scattered

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He watched us with sullen eyes until we had left his premises.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I think, with your permission, I will now take a stroll round the premises.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)