sure

sure 1 assured, *confident, sanguine, presumptuous

Analogous words: relying, trusting, depending, counting, banking (see RELY): inerrant, unerring, *infallible: *safe, secure

2 Sure, certain, positive, cocksure mean having or showing no doubt. Sure and certain are often interchangeable. But sure frequently emphasizes the mere subjective state of assurance; certain often suggests more strongly a conviction that is based on definite grounds or on indubitable evidence

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"I know my hour is come." "Not so, my lord." "Nay, I am sure it is"— Shak.

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be out of hope, of question, of doubt; be certain—Shak.

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in the library he too seemed surer of himself—though once they were on their way home he became almost remote, strangely watchful— Malamud

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they were sure and certain, forever wrong, but always confident. They had no hesitation, they confessed no ignorance or error— Wolfe

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Positive often suggests overconfidence or dogmatism, but it implies conviction or full confidence in the Tightness or correctness of one's statement or conclusion

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an assertive positive man . . . had his own notion of what a young man should be— Anderson

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so much more positive than most of his customers, and he impressed his own convictions on them so determinedly, that he had his own way— Scudder

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an easy and elegant skepticism was the attitude expected of an educated adult: anything might be discussed, but it was a trifle vulgar to reach very positive conclusions— Russell

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Cocksure tends to carry a strong implication of presumption or overconfidence in positiveness

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certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so— Justice Holmes

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people . . . regarded as brash to the point of arrogance, cocksure to the verge of folly— MacLeish

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Analogous words: decisive, *decided: self-assured, assured, self- confident (see corresponding nouns at CONFIDENCE): dogmatic, doctrinaire, oracular (see DICTATORIAL)

Antonyms: unsure