true

adjective

1. 1

   Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

   This is a true story.

   The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

   The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

   At any rate, this does tend to put in truer perspective the symbolic claim placed by Herodotus in the mouth of 'the Athenians'—also Ionians—in 480/479, that the fact of being Greek was constituted in essential part by 'same-bloodedness'.

2. 2

   Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct. As an ellipsis of "(while) it is true (that)", used to start a sentence

   True, I have only read part of the book, but I like it so far.

   The “Bulletin” “denies that we have been celebrating the birth of the Australian Commonwealth. Our so-called national celebrations have been prostituted to a Jingo military carnival, glorificatory of one of the most venal and ignoble wars of the dead century.” True, but the “Bulletin” shouldn’t sing out.

3. 3

   Conforming to a rule or pattern; exact; accurate.

   a true copy

   a true likeness of the original

   […]making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time[…]

4. 4

   Of the state in Boolean logic that indicates an affirmative or positive result.

   "A and B" is true if and only if "A" is true and "B" is true.

5. 5

   Loyal, faithful.

   He’s turned out to be a true friend.

   I really let you down / Next time I'll be true, yeah

6. 6

   Genuine; legitimate; valid; sensu stricto.

   The true king has returned!

   This is true Parmesan cheese — it is from the Parma region.

   The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunyng of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk, and sometimes even as a “true obelisk,” even though it is not. A true obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.

7. 7

   Genuine; legitimate; valid; sensu stricto. Used in the designation of group of species, or sometimes a single species, to indicate that it belongs to the clade its common name (which may be more broadly scoped in common speech) is restricted to in technical speech, or to distinguish it from a similar species, the latter of which may be called false.

   true sparrows (Passer)

   true spiders

   true blusher (Amanita rubescens, as distinguished from the false blusher, Amanita pantherina)

   The true bugs are those of the order Hemiptera; and, by some lights, most truly those of the suborder Heteroptera.

8. 8

   Accurate; following a path toward the target.

   Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.

   I held my breath and struck the ball. My aim was true, but I didn't give the damn thing enough gas. It died three feet from the cup.

9. 9

   Correctly aligned or calibrated, without deviation.

   Is my bike wheel true? It feels unsteady.

   Brakes need good braking surfaces and true wheels to work properly.

10. 10

    Fair, unbiased, not loaded.

    Let Z#95;t be twice the value of a true die shown on the t-th toss.

    In fact, few profit margins can be predicted with such reliability as those provided by a true roulette wheel or other game of chance.

    Finally, the truest measure of quality: In interconference games, Western teams have a 57-38 record against the East, including overtime and penalty shootout results — a winning percentage of .600.

    We do not reject, because 9 heads and 3 tails is in a set of reasonably likely results when we toss a true coin.

11. 11

    based on actual historical events.

    true crime

    true romance

    [A] skinny blonde of about twenty sitting in an armchair by an electric fire reading a true romance magazine.

adverb

1. 1

   Accurately; in alignment.

   This gun shoots true.

   If the tyre doesn't run true (it wobbles as you spin the wheel), re-seat it by letting most of the air out and pulling the tyre away from the bead.

   Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

2. 2

   archaicTruthfully.

   I tel you true my hart is ſwolne with wrath, On this ſame theeuish villain Tamburlain.

   What am I to you? Tell me, darling, true.

noun

1. 1

   The state of being in alignment.

   Some toolmakers are very careless when drilling the first hole through work that is to be bored, claiming that if the drilled hole comes out of true somewhat it can be brought true with the boring tool.

   She clapped her hands happily, and he thought how pretty she was really, that is, the upper part of her face—from the bridge of the nose down she was somewhat out of true.

   The crate shifted on its pallet, out of sync now. As the lift withdrew, the crate skidded with it, dragged by friction and gravity, skewing farther and farther from true.

   The strength and number of blows depends on how far out of true the shafts are.

2. 2

   obsoleteTruth.

verb

1. 1

   To straighten (something that is supposed to be straight).

   He trued the spokes of the bicycle wheel.

   Don't attempt to true a wheel until you've a good idea what is causing the buckle.

2. 2

   To make even, level, symmetrical, or accurate, align; adjust (often followed by up).

   We spent all night truing up the report.

noun

1. 1

   obsoleteA pledge or truce.

Forms

plural

trues

comparative

truer, more true

superlative

truest, most true

past tense

trued

past participle

trued

present participle

trueing, truing

third person singular

trues