Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To state or express positively; affirm.
- transitive verb To defend or maintain (one's rights, for example).
- transitive verb To put into action boldly; employ or demonstrate.
- idiom (assert oneself) To act boldly or forcefully, especially in defending one's rights or stating an opinion.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To bring (into freedom); set (free).
- To vindicate, maintain, or defend by words or measures; support the cause or claims of; vindicate a claim or title to: now used only of immaterial objects or reflexively: as, to
assert our rights and liberties; he asserted himself boldly. - To state as true; affirm; asseverate; aver; declare.
- Syn. 2. Assert, Defend, Maintain, Vindicate, Assert supports a cause or claim aggressively: its meaning is well brought out in the expression, assert yourself; that is, make your influence felt. To defend is primarily to drive back assaults. To maintain is to hold up to the full amount, defending from diminution: as, to
maintain the ancient customs, liberties, rights. To vindicate is to rescue, as from diminution, dishonor, or censure: as, to “vindicate the ways of God to man,” - Assert, Affirm, Declare, Aver, Asseverate (see
declare ), allege, protest, avow, lay down. (Seeprotest .) Assert seems to expect doubt or contradiction of what one says. Affirm strengthens a statement by resting it upon one's reputation for knowledge or veracity: as, “she constantly affirmed that it was even so,” Acts xii. 15. Declare makes public, clear, or emphatic, especially against contradiction. Aver is positive and peremptory. Asseverate is positive and solemn.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To affirm; to declare with assurance, or plainly and strongly; to state positively; to aver; to asseverate.
- transitive verb Obs. or Archaic To maintain; to defend.
- transitive verb To maintain or defend, as a cause or a claim, by words or measures; to vindicate a claim or title to.
- transitive verb to claim or vindicate one's rights or position; to demand recognition.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun computer science an assert statement; a section of
source code which tests whether an expected condition is true. - verb To
declare withassurance or plainly and strongly; to state positively. - verb To use or
exercise and thereby prove the existence of. - verb To
maintain ordefend , as acause or aclaim , by words or measures; tovindicate a claim or title to; as, to assert our rights and liberties. - verb computer science to make true; to make equal to 1.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb assert to be true
- verb state categorically
- verb to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true
- verb insist on having one's opinions and rights recognized
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word assert.
Examples
-
The same goes for whenever Dick Fuld has reemerged to again assert it was the government's fault, not his, that Lehman Brothers failed.
Why Leaders Fail Under Pressure Paul Sullivan 2010
-
Experience, we all assert, is a good thing, a necessary thing, the difference between a qualified practitioner and a tyro.
Archive 2009-05-01 2009
-
What you assert is not a “fact” anymore than the election of “President-elect Huckabee” in 2008 was a “fact”.
Think Progress » Right Wing Rallies Around Trent Lott’s Segregationist Remarks To Attack Harry Reid 2010
-
The same goes for whenever Dick Fuld has reemerged to again assert it was the government's fault, not his, that Lehman Brothers failed.
Why Leaders Fail Under Pressure Paul Sullivan 2010
-
Global warming is, after all, global, so if what you assert is true, there ought to occasionally be a trip over, for example, the trans-Siberian railway from Vladivostok to Moscow.
Brian Baird led junket to South Pole on taxpayers' dime (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009
-
Admitting the comparision that you assert is "unrelibale."
-
What happens with liberals, I assert, is that they then, in many cases, filter what they have learned through emotion through reason to come up with a response.
Irrational conservatism David 2007
-
Would you ban them ? would you ban dangerous sport , would you , in short , assert , that the state owns your life.
Praguetory Schooldays Part Two Praguetory 2007
-
Your background which you assert is in the law, then in catering, seems rather interesting.
-
But eventually, he suggested, television would incorporate those same enhancements into its own equipment, and television would once again assert its advantage of convenience within the home.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.