DEMUR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Demur

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/dɪmˈər/ Listen

noun

Demur n. Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple. "All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, "Do; and we go snacks.""

verb

Demur v. t.

1.

To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about. (Obs.) "The latter I demur, for in their looks Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears."

2.

To cause delay to; to put off. (Obs.) "He demands a fee, And then demurs me with a vain delay."

Demur v. i. (past & past part. demurred; pres. part. demurring)

1.

To linger; to stay; to tarry. (Obs.) "Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp."

2.

To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair. "Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur."

3.

To scruple or object; to take exception, especially on the basis of scruple or modesty; as, I demur to that statement; they wanted to make him president, but he demurred. "From the popular assertion that he was the smartest man in the world Gell-Mann was not predisposed to demur."

4.

(Law) To interpose a demurrer. See Demurrer, 2.

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Etymology of 'Demur'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Demur" Quotes from Famous Books

... together, and Philip tells me he had sometimes fancied that Davlin held some power over Percy. Davlin had won largely from him, and the man seemed much annoyed, but paid over the money without demur." ...

— Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter • Lawrence L. Lynch

... looked at one another in disconsolate uncertainty, and one turned his cards face downward and laid them resignedly on the table. The party was evidently in for one of the old chaplain's long stories, with a few words by way of application, and there was no decent opportunity to demur. They were the intruders in the smoking-room—not he! Here with his pipe and his paper, he was within the accommodation assigned him. They must hie them back to the casino to be at ease, and this would ...

— The Lost Guidon - 1911 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... cavalry captain, an officer who had been in the Boer war, an ex-priest, a clerk, a banker and a cowboy, all very pleasant people as long as they were sober; but the arrival of each was celebrated with several bottles, which the director handed out without any demur, although the amount was prodigious. Quarrels ensued; but by New Year's Eve peace was restored, and we all decorated the director's house with wreaths for the banquet of the evening. The feast began well, but towards midnight a general ...

— Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific • Felix Speiser

... horses at a price less than that which I expected to get at the fair; be this as it may, the question filled me with embarrassment, and I bitterly repented not having at first been more explicit. Thereupon the magistrate, in the same kind of tone, demanded to see my pocket-book. I knew that to demur would be useless, and produced it, and forthwith amongst two or three country notes, appeared the fourth which I had received from the Horncastle dealer. The agent took it up and examined it with attention. 'Well, is it a genuine note?' said the magistrate. 'I ...

— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... no!—if he had been kind for one friend, he had been difficult and ungrateful for another. The thinness of Eleanor's cheek, the hollowness of her blue eye accused him. But even here the girl's inner mind had begun to doubt and demur. After all did she know ...

— Eleanor • Mrs. Humphry Ward

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