Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To declare positively; assert to be true.
  • intransitive verb To declare support for or belief in.
  • intransitive verb Law To rule (a court decision) to have been correct; confirm.
  • intransitive verb To assert that one will give true testimony equivalent to that which would be given while under oath.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To state or assert positively; tell with confidence; aver; declare to be a fact; maintain as true: opposed to deny.
  • To make firm; establish, confirm, or ratify: as, the appellate court affirmed the judgment.
  • To declare or assert positively or solemnly.
  • To declare solemnly before a court or magistrate, but without oath (a practice allowed where the affirmant has scruples against taking an oath); make a legal affirmation. See affirmation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To declare or assert positively.
  • intransitive verb (Law) To make a solemn declaration, before an authorized magistrate or tribunal, under the penalties of perjury; to testify by affirmation.
  • transitive verb (Law) to assert or confirm, as a judgment, decree, or order, brought before an appellate court for review.
  • transitive verb To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to aver; to maintain as true; -- opposed to deny.
  • transitive verb (Law) To declare, as a fact, solemnly, under judicial sanction. See Affirmation, 4.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To agree, verify or concur; to answer positively.
  • verb To support or encourage

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true
  • verb establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
  • verb say yes to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English affermen, from Old French afermer, from Latin affirmāre : ad-, ad- + firmāre, to strengthen (from firmus, strong; see dher- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French afermer, affermer, from Latin affirmare, adfirmare ("to present as fixed, aver, affirm"), from ad ("to") + firmare ("to make firm"), from firmus ("firm").

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Examples

  • The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true.

    Chapter 3 2010

  • The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true.

    Chapter 4 2010

  • Christ came into existence before Abraham did (as Arians affirm is the meaning), but that He never came into being at all, but existed before

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which I now affirm is true (30). [

    _Frankenstein_'s Cinematic Dream 2003

  • Against this view it can hardly be thought to militate that the Batak does not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other grounds for respecting the sacred animal or plant of his clan.

    Chapter 67. The External Soul in Folk-Custom. § 3. The External Soul in Animals 1922

  • Against this view it can hardly be thought to militate that the Batak does not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other grounds for respecting the sacred animal or plant of his clan.

    The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion 1922

  • Batak does not in set terms affirm his external soul to be in his totem, but alleges other grounds for respecting the sacred animal or plant of his clan.

    The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1897

  • For to affirm is to determine; now, every determination, to be true, must be reached empirically.

    System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery 1888

  • Philologists of yet greater name affirm that it was meant to designate _pre-eminence_, and therefore ought to be written _ante_, before, from the Latin, a language now pretty well forgotten, though the authors who wrote in it are still preserved in French translations.

    The Wit of Women Fourth Edition Kate Sanborn 1878

  • What pure Christianity is, divested of all its ornaments, appendages, and corruption, I pretend not to say; but what it is not, I will venture to affirm, which is, that it is not the offspring of fraud or fiction: such, on

    A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion. 1704-1787 1799

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