Part 211

In*feoff" (?), v. t. (Law) See Enfeoff.

In*feoff"ment (?), n. (Law) See Enfeoffment.

In*fer" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inferred (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Inferring.] [L. inferre to bring into, bring forward, occasion, infer; pref. in- in + ferre to carry, bring: cf. F. inférer. See 1 st Bear.]

1. To bring on; to induce; to occasion. [Obs.] Harvey.

2. To offer, as violence. [Obs.] Spenser.

3. To bring forward, or employ as an argument; to adduce; to allege; to offer. [Obs.]

Full well hath Clifford played the orator, Inferring arguments of mighty force.

Shak.

4. To derive by deduction or by induction; to conclude or surmise from facts or premises; to accept or derive, as a consequence, conclusion, or probability; to imply; as, I inferred his determination from his silence.

To infer is nothing but by virtue of one proposition laid down as true, to draw in another as true.

Locke.

Such opportunities always infer obligations.

Atterbury.

5. To show; to manifest; to prove. [Obs.]

The first part is not the proof of the second, but rather contrariwise, the second inferreth well the first.

Sir T. More.

This doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

Shak.

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In*fer"a*ble (n*fr"*b'l or n*fr"-; 277), a. Capable of being inferred or deduced from premises. [Written also inferrible.] H. Spencer.

A sufficient argument . . . is inferable from these premises.

Burke.

In"fer*ence (?), n. [From Infer.]

1. The act or process of inferring by deduction or induction.

Though it may chance to be right in the conclusions, it is yet unjust and mistaken in the method of inference.

Glanvill.

2. That which inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction. Milton.

These inferences, or conclusions, are the effects of reasoning, and the three propositions, taken all together, are called syllogism, or argument.