PREMISE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Premise

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/prˈɛmɪs/ Listen

noun

Premise n. (pl. premises) (Written also, less properly, premiss)

1.

A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition. "The premises observed, Thy will by my performance shall be served."

2.

(Logic) Either of the first two propositions of a syllogism, from which the conclusion is drawn. Note: "All sinners deserve punishment: A B is a sinner." These propositions, which are the premises, being true or admitted, the conclusion follows, that A B deserves punishment. "While the premises stand firm, it is impossible to shake the conclusion."

3.

pl. (Law) Matters previously stated or set forth; esp., that part in the beginning of a deed, the office of which is to express the grantor and grantee, and the land or thing granted or conveyed, and all that precedes the habendum; the thing demised or granted.

4.

pl. A piece of real estate; a building and its adjuncts; as, to lease premises; to trespass on another's premises.

verb

Premise v. t. (past & past part. premised; pres. part. premising)

1.

To send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously. (Obs.) "The premised flames of the last day." "If venesection and a cathartic be premised."

2.

To set forth beforehand, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows; especially, to lay down premises or first propositions, on which rest the subsequent reasonings. "I premise these particulars that the reader may know that I enter upon it as a very ungrateful task."

Premise v. i. To make a premise; to set forth something as a premise.

See images of 'Premise'

Etymology of 'Premise'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Premise" Quotes from Famous Books

... a second glance on the man in question. He was wearing evening kit, and at first sight the brown-skinned face above the white of his collar, taken in conjunction with dark hair and very strongly-marked brows, seemed to premise the correctness of Tony's surmise. Suddenly the man lifted his bent head, and over the top of the newspaper Arm found herself looking into a pair of unmistakably grey eyes—grey as steel. They were very direct eyes, with a certain brooding discontent ...

— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler

... my child, not me! Or rather, blame mother Nature herself, for giving us but seventy or eighty years instead of making us as long-lived as Tithonus. For my part, I have but led you from premise to conclusion. ...

— Marius the Epicurean, Volume Two • Walter Horatio Pater

... p. 225.—In giving a specimen of this mode of illustrating a connected subject, we may only premise, that the method, as a branch of Education, requires that all the general heads should be perceived first, before any of them is sub-divided. For example, Paul's sermon at Antioch, (Acts xiii.) must be perceived by the pupil in its great outline, or general heads, before he be called on ...

— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... not intended to be controversial, but only to make clear the general sense in which the term Pantheism is here used. Not that it would be possible at the outset to indicate all that is implicit in the definition. I only wish to premise plainly that I am not concerned with any view of the world such as implies or admits that, whether by process of creation, or emanation, or self-division, or evolution, the oneness of the Eternal has ever been marred, or anything ...

— Pantheism, Its Story and Significance - Religions Ancient And Modern • J. Allanson Picton

... rebellion, repudiating the use of his name and deprecating the resort to violence. The closing words are a compendium of his life and beliefs: "Countrymen: I have given proofs, as well as the best of you, of desiring liberty for our country, and I continue to desire it. But I place as a premise the education of the people, so that by means of instruction and work they may have a personality of their own and that they may make themselves worthy of that same liberty. In my writings I have recommended the study of the civic virtues, without which there can be no redemption. I have also written ...

— The Social Cancer - A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere • Jose Rizal

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com