ASSERT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Assert

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/əsˈərt/ Listen

verb

Assert v. t. (past & past part. asserted; pres. part. asserting)

To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate. "Nothing is more shameful... than to assert anything to be done without a cause."

To maintain; to defend. (Obs. or Archaic) "That... I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men." "I will assert it from the scandal."

To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties.

To assert one's self, to claim or vindicate one's rights or position; to demand recognition.

Synonyms: To affirm; aver; asseverate; maintain; protest; pronounce; declare; vindicate. To Assert, Affirm, Maintain, Vindicate. To assert is to fasten to one's self, and hence to claim. It is, therefore, adversative in its nature. We assert our rights and privileges, or the cause of tree institutions, as against opposition or denial. To affirm is to declare as true. We assert boldly; we affirm positively. To maintain is to uphold, and insist upon with earnestness, whatever we have once asserted; as, to maintain one's cause, to maintain an argument, to maintain the ground we have taken. To vindicate is to use language and measures of the strongest kind, in defense of ourselves and those for whom we act. We maintain our assertions by adducing proofs, facts, or arguments; we are ready to vindicate our rights or interests by the utmost exertion of our powers.

See images of 'Assert'

Etymology of 'Assert'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Assert" Quotes from Famous Books

... dwelling-places that effectually guard them from any sudden invasions or attacks from their enemies; and being such a swampy, hommocky country, furnishes such a plenty and variety of supplies for the nourishment of varieties of animals that I can venture to assert that no part of the globe so abounds with wild game, or creatures fit for the ...

— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving

... of the European Continent, to remain visible. But as many millenniums would be required for the opposite effect of obliterating the original similarity, this is saying but little. All that it is safe to assert is— ...

— The Ethnology of the British Islands • Robert Gordon Latham

... difference arising between my brother and me, I took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming that he would not venture to produce the new indentures. It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first errata of my life; but the unfairness of it weighed little with me, when under the impressions of resentment for the blows his ...

— Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin

... German kings who succeed to the throne mal a propos, but it is every sphere of bourgeois society which experiences its defeat before it celebrates its victory, develops its own handicaps before it overcomes the handicaps which confront it, asserts its own narrow-minded nature before it can assert its generous nature, so that even the opportunity of playing a great part is always past before it actually existed, and each class, so soon as it embarks on a struggle with the class above it, becomes involved in a struggle with the class below it. Consequently, the princedom finds ...

— Selected Essays • Karl Marx

... of whom for some time so many things had been related. Lazarus was seated at the table, and attracted much attention. Martha served, according to her custom.[4] It seems that they sought, by an increased show of respect, to overcome the coolness of the public, and to assert the high dignity of their guest. Mary, in order to give to the event a more festive appearance, entered during dinner, bearing a vase of perfume which she poured upon the feet of Jesus. She afterward broke the vase, according to an ancient custom by which ...

— The Life of Jesus • Ernest Renan

More quotes...