suggest

suggest 1 Suggest, imply, hint, intimate, insinuate can all mean to convey an idea or the thought of something by indirect means.

Suggest emphasizes a putting into the mind as the result of an association of ideas, an awakening of a desire, or an initiating of a train of thought

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the militant severity of his judgments, and the caustic wit of his comments, suggest . . . how long and bitter would be the struggle— Partington

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designing attractive books (with jackets that truly suggest their contents)— Malcolm Cowley

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he can suggest in his work the immobility of a plain or the extreme action of a bolt of lightning, without showing either— Nichols

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Imply (see also INCLUDE) is in general opposed to express; the term stresses a suggesting, or putting into the mind, of an idea, a thought, or a meaning that is involved in a statement, an action, a situation, or a word and forms a part, but not necessarily an obvious part, of its full signification or significance

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the philosophy of Nature which is implied in Chinese art— Binyon

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dislikes intensely to say this; in chapter after chapter he approaches it and implies it, only to draw back from saying it quite baldly— Brand Blanshard

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Very often the difference between suggest and imply is not clear, though suggest often connotes the necessity of delicate perception and imply connotes the need of inference

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a competent portraitist knows how to imply the profile in the full face— Huxley

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the "sayings" of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life— Cather

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Hint implies the use of a remote or covert suggestion and often also connotes lack of candor, frankness, or straightforwardness

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looking for a minute at the soft hinted green in the branches against the sky— Shirley Jackson

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he was not candid with her about his feelings; for once, when he had merely hinted at them to her, she had laughed— Dell

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the Star Route frauds, hinted at while Hayes was president, were uncovered before the death of Garfield— Paxson

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Intimate frequently implies a lighter or more elusive suggestion than hint but it connotes delicacy of approach rather than lack of candor or frankness

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he said that he had to be prudent or might not be able to say all that he thought, thus intimating to his hearers that they might infer that he meant more— Justice Holmes

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Insinuate (see INTRODUCE 2) implies an artful hinting or a conveying, especially of an unpleasant or depreciative suggestion, in an underhanded or devious manner

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by his tone and expression, rather than by his words, he insinuated that the boy was not to be trusted

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he could quietly insinuate the most scandalously hilarious things about the Joneses— Theodore Sturgeon

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the voice that insinuates that Jews and Negroes and Catholics are inferior excrescences on our body politic— Lerner

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Analogous words: present, *offer: *infuse, imbue, inoculate, leaven: *advance, further: allude, *refer, advert: connote, *denote

Antonyms: express

2 Suggest, adumbrate, shadow are comparable when they are predicated of things that serve indirectly to represent another thing because they evoke a thought, an image, or a conception of it.

One thing suggests another when it brings to mind something that is not objectively present, immediately apparent, or directly represented. The thing that suggests may be an outward sign which prompts an inference

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a certain well-to-do air about the man suggested that he was not poor for his degree— Hardy

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It may be a symbol, which calls to mind whatever it conventionally represents

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the fleur-de-lis suggests the royal power of France

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It may be a fragment which evokes an image of a whole or a concrete detail that gives an inkling of something abstract or incapable of representation

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the curve of the greyhound is not only the line of beauty, but a line which suggests motion— Jefferies

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It may be a word or a phrase that calls up a train of associations and reveals more than it actually denotes

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phrases flat and precise on the surface yet suggesting mystery below— Day Lewis

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the business of words in prose is primarily to state; in poetry, not only to state, but also (and sometimes primarily) to suggest— Lowes

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One thing adumbrates another when the former faintly or darkly or sketchily suggests the latter. Adumbrate seldom takes a material object and is especially appro-priate for use with one that is or is felt as beyond the present level or sometimes the reach of human comprehension or imagination

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the Soviet demands, flatly presented or delicately adumbrated at Potsdam— Mosely

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this concept is adumbrated, but not yet distinctly conceived— Lowie

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both in the vastness and the richness of the visible universe the invisible God is adumbrated— Isaac Taylor

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When one thing shadows (or shadows forth[i])another thing, it represents that thing obscurely (as by a symbol or other indirect means). Sometimes the word comes close to [i]prefigure or foreshadow, but as a rule precedence is not implied

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to the Chinese painters this world of nature seemed a more effective way of shadowing forth the manifold moods of man than by representing human figures animated by these moods— Binyon

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Antonyms: manifest