Uncertainty
Uncertainty
#475. Uncertainty. -- N. uncertainty, incertitude, doubt; doubtfulness
&c. adj.; dubiety, dubitation[obs], dubitancy|, dubitousness[obs].
- hesitation, suspense; perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma,
bewilderment; timidity &c. (fear) 860; vacillation &c. 605;
diaporesis[obs], indetermination.
- vagueness &c. adj.; haze, fog; obscurity &c. (darkness) 421; ambiguity
&c. (double meaning) 520; contingency, dependence, dependency, double
contingency, possibility upon a possibility; open question &c. (question)
461; onus probandi[Lat]; blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark,
something or other; needle in a haystack, needle in a bottle of hay; roving
commission.
- precariousness &c. adj.; fallibility.
- V. be uncertain &c. adj.; wonder whether.
- lose the clue, lose the clew, scent; miss one's way.
- not know what to make of &c. (unintelligibility) 519, not know which
way to turn, not know whether one stands on one s head or one's heels;
float in a sea of doubt,hesitate, flounder; lose oneself, lose one's head;
muddle one's brains.
- render uncertain &c. adj.; put out, pose, puzzle, perplex, embarrass;
confuse, confound; bewilder, bother, molder, addle the wits, throw off the
scent, ambiguas in vulgus spargere voces[Lat]; keep in suspense.
- doubt &c. (disbelieve) 485; hang in the balance, tremble in the
balance; depend.
- Adj. uncertain; casual; random &c. (aimless) 621; changeable &c. 149.
- doubtful, dubious; indecisive; unsettled, undecided, undetermined; in
suspense, open to discussion; controvertible; in question &c. (inquiry)
461.
- vague; indeterminate, indefinite; ambiguous, equivocal; undefined,
undefinable; confused &c. (indistinct) 447; mystic, oracular; dazed.
- perplexing &c. v.; enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical,
hypothetical; experimental &c. 463.
- unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable) 519.
- fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable,
disputable; unreliable, untrustworthy.
- contingent, contingent on, dependent on; subject to; dependent on
circumstances; occasional; provisional.
- unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative; unascertained,
unconfirmed; undemonstrated; untold, uncounted.
- in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze; bushed, off the
track; ignorant.&c. 491; afraid to say; out of one's reckoning, astray,
adrift; at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus;
puzzled &c. v.; lost, abroad, desoriente; distracted, distraught.
- Adv. pendente lite[Lat]; sub spe rati[Lat].
- Phr. Heaven knows; who can tell? who shall decide when doctors
disagree? ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces[Lat].