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vouchsafe

verb
/ˌvaʊt͡ʃˈseɪf/US/ˌvʌʊtʃˈseɪf/CA

Etymology

From vouch + safe, written as two words in Middle English and early Modern English.

  1. derived from *solh₂-✻ — “whole, every”
  2. derived from *salwos✻
  3. derived from salvus
  4. derived from sauf
  5. inherited from sauf
  6. compounded as vouchsafe — “vouch + safe”

Definitions

  1. To graciously give, to condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.

    To graciously give, to condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.

    • If Brutus will vouchſafe that Antony / May ſafely come to him ...
    • Wilt thou, whoſe will is large and ſpacious, / Not once vouchſafe to hide my will in thine?
    • Needless to say, we have been vouchsafed no idea of what this might cost the innocent victims, the ratepayers.

  2. To receive or accept in condescension.

  3. To disclose or divulge.

    • She vouchsafed to me that she regretted ever marrying him.
    • His predictions were at first to be guided by direct intimations vouchsafed to him by the god; […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at vouchsafe. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01vouchsafe02condescendingly03condescending04condescend05deign

A definitional loop anchored at vouchsafe. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at vouchsafe

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA