surefire English
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sure English
Adjective
( er)
Physically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable.
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Certain in one's knowledge or belief.
*
, title=( The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.}}
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Certain to act or be a specified way.
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(obsolete) Free from danger; safe; secure.
* Shakespeare
- Fear not; the forest is not three leagues off; / If we recover that we are sure enough.
(obsolete) Betrothed; engaged to marry.
* Sir T. More
- The king was sure to Dame Elizabeth Lucy, and her husband before God.
* Brome
- I presume that you had been sure as fast as faith could bind you, man and wife.
Derived terms
* for sure
* surely
* sure up
(sure)
Adverb
( en adverb)
Without doubt.
- Sure he's coming! Why wouldn't he?
- "Did you kill that bear yourself? ?"I sure did!"
Usage notes
* Often proscribed in favor of surely. May be informal.
Synonyms
* certainly, of course, OK, yes
References
* 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988
Statistics
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