Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Speculation

Spec′u·la′tion (·lā′shŭn), n. [L. speculatio a spying out, observation: cf. F. spéculation.] 1. The act of speculating. Specifically: —

(a) Examination by the eye; view. [Obs.]

(b) Mental view of anything in its various aspects and relations; contemplation; intellectual examination.

Thenceforth to speculations high or deep I turned my thoughts. Milton.

(c) (Philos.) The act or process of reasoning a priori from premises given or assumed.

(d) (Com.) The act or practice of buying land, goods, shares, etc., in expectation of selling at a higher price, or of selling with the expectation of repurchasing at a lower price; a trading on anticipated fluctuations in price, as distinguished from trading in which the profit expected is the difference between the retail and wholesale prices, or the difference of price in different markets.

Sudden fortunes, indeed, are sometimes made in such places, by what is called the trade of speculation. A. Smith.

Speculation, while confined within moderate limits, is the agent for equalizing supply and demand, and rendering the fluctuations of price less sudden and abrupt than they would otherwise be. F. A. Walker.

(e) Any business venture in involving unusual risks, with a chance for large profits.

2. A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere theory; view; notion; conjecture.

From him Socrates derived the principles of morality, and most part of his natural speculations. Sir W. temple.

To his speculations on these subjects he gave the lofty name of the "Oracles of Reason." Macaulay.

3. Power of sight. [Obs.]

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes. Shak.

4. A game at cards in which the players buy from one another trumps or whole hands, upon a chance of getting the highest trump dealt, which entitles the holder to the pool of stakes.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.