Verb

(en verb)

To hold up a claim emphatically.

(I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}

To demand continually that something happen or be done.

To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).

* 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis

Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.

Verb

(en verb)

To find out definitely; to discover or establish.

* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“There the cause of death was soon ascertained ?; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom. […]”}}

As soon as we ascertain what the situation is, we can plan how to proceed.