contemplate
verbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈkɒn.təmˌpleɪt//
- United States//ˈkɑn.təmˌpleɪt//
To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder, or consider.
verb
- 1
To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder, or consider.
To love, at least contemplate and admire, / What I see excellent.
We thus dilate / Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate.
- 2
To consider as a possibility.
I contemplated doing the project myself, but it would have taken too long.
There remain some particulars to complete the information contemplated by those resolutions.
If a treaty contains any stipulations which contemplate a state of future war.
In Calcutta, season tickets are issued only for the calendar month, with a different colour for each month, so that this problem does not arise. The merest whisper of an idea to change Bombay to the Calcutta system brought such a howl of protest in the Press, that it was never seriously contemplated.
Etymology
First attested in the 1590s; borrowed from Latin contemplātus, the perfect active participle of contemplor (“to observe, survey, gaze (at), contemplate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). See also template.
Forms
- past tense
- contemplated
- past participle
- contemplated
- present participle
- contemplating
- third person singular
- contemplates
contemplate · To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to…
contemporary · From the same time period, coexistent in time;…contempt · The state or act of contemning; the feeling or attitude of…content · Satisfied, pleased, contented.