Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To bestow (an honor, for example).
- intransitive verb To invest with (a characteristic, for example).
- intransitive verb To meet in order to deliberate together or compare views; consult.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To bring together.
- To compare; examine by comparison; collate.
- [In this sense now obsolete except as used in the imperative in making reference to illustrative words or passages, in which use it coincides with, and is usually treated as, the Latin imperative confer (pron. kon′ fėr), and commonly abbreviated conf. or cf.]
- To bestow as a permanent gift; settle as a possession: followed by on or upon.
- To contribute; conduce.
- Synonyms Bestow; Grant, etc. See
give . - To consult together on some special subject; compare opinions; carry on a discussion or deliberation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To have discourse; to consult; to compare views; to deliberate.
- transitive verb obsolete To bring together for comparison; to compare.
- transitive verb To grant as a possession; to bestow.
- transitive verb obsolete To contribute; to conduce.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb present
- verb have a conference in order to talk something over
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It is short for the Latin word confer and instructs the reader to compare one thing with another.
cf 2002
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The problem with allowing firearms officers to confer is that it opens those same officers up to charges of collusion and fabrication and it gives every aggrieved person a whopping big target to fling crap at, and every time they do public confidence in the police is hurt.
Good For The Goose « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008
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What I also try to confer is that you don't need divine interaction when talking about designs or goal-orientation.
Albert de Roos: A design hypothesis for the evolution of the nucleus 2006
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What I also try to confer is that you don't need divine interaction when talking about designs or goal-orientation.
Albert de Roos: A design hypothesis for the evolution of the nucleus 2006
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For decades it was easy to consider the Electoral College a harmless vestige — or to predict that should it ever again confer victory on a popular loser, as it had in 1876 and in 1888, there would be such an outcry that it would be abolished.
Founders Chic 2003
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For decades it was easy to consider the Electoral College a harmless vestige — or to predict that should it ever again confer victory on a popular loser, as it had in 1876 and in 1888, there would be such an outcry that it would be abolished.
Founders Chic 2003
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It did not even go so far as to say, "We will confer, that is the right method"; it said, "We will learn how to confer."
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But none of these titles confer upon me the right of property.
What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government. 1890
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Amendment does not secure the ballot to woman, neither does it to the negro; for it does not in terms confer the ballot upon any one.
History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II Matilda Joslyn Gage 1862
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But none of these titles confer upon me the right of property.
What is Property? 1837
dbekeny commented on the word confer
WIZARD
Therefore, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Universitatus
Committeeatum e plurbis unum, I hereby
confer upon you the honorary degree of Th.D.
June 9, 2010
kiltwraith commented on the word confer
-to compare
cf.
October 19, 2010
NUTZFORdBUCKS commented on the word confer
Why didn't you confer with him before making such a rash decision?
February 13, 2012