OSTENSIBLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ostensible

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/ɑstˈɛnsəbəl/ Listen

adjective

Ostensible adj.

Capable of being shown; proper or intended to be shown. (R.)

Outwardly appearing to be; shown to be; exhibited; apparent; evident.

Declared; avowed; professed; pretended; often used as opposed to real or actual; as, an ostensible reason, motive, or aim.

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Etymology of 'Ostensible'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ostensible" Quotes from Famous Books

... mode to be adopted for invoking and collecting the suffrages of the people. For this purpose au extraordinary meeting of the Council of State was summoned on the 10th of May. Bonaparte wished to keep himself aloof from all ostensible influence; but his two colleagues laboured for him more zealously than he could have worked for himself, and they were warmly supported by several members of the Council. A strong majority were of opinion ...

— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... the clergy its repeal will remedy the disadvantages the Dissenters lie under reasons offered for its repeal in favour of Catholics King Charles Second's arguments for its repeal affecting Dissenters and Roman Catholics equally ostensible commendation of a criticism on "The Presbyterians Plea of Merit" some few thoughts on ten reasons for repealing it Thales, his dictum for bearing ill-fortune Thermometer, the church Throckmorton, ...

— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift

... here, the Cornet was busy in his preparations. He had brought the Colonel's shallop from Elk River to the Patuxent, and was here concerting a plan to put the little vessel under the command of some ostensible owner who might appear in the character of its master to any over-curious or inopportune questioner. He had found a man exactly to his hand in a certain Roger Skreene, whose name might almost be thought to ...

— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 34, August, 1860 • Various

... you doing, young man? Are you so earnest—so given up to literature, science, art, amours? These ostensible realities, politics, points? Your ambition or ...

— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... and survived; for she had, in the child which relied on her for support, a motive for strength and exertion. In what manner she maintained herself it is not easy to say. Her only ostensible means of support were a flock of three or four goats, which she fed wherever she pleased on the mountain pastures, no one challenging the intrusion. In the general distress of the country, her ancient acquaintances had little to bestow; but what they could part with from their own necessities, ...

— Chronicles of the Canongate • Sir Walter Scott

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