vouchsafe
verbUS, UK /ˌvaʊt͡ʃˈseɪf/ · CA [ˌvʌʊtʃˈseɪf]
Etymology From vouch + safe, written as two words in Middle English and early Modern English.
1
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 ...1599?, William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene i, page 119:
- Wilt thou, whoſe will is large and ſpacious, / Not once vouchſafe to hide my will in thine?1609, William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets: Neuer before Imprinted, London: G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe], and are to be solde by William Aspley, →OCLC, sonnet 135:
2 more examples
- Needless to say, we have been vouchsafed no idea of what this might cost the innocent victims, the ratepayers.1964 July, “The mythology of monorails”, in Modern Railways, page 57:
- The fundamentalist is concerned with what accords with some ultimate, sacred truth, as vouchsafed to an ancestral scribe or prophet, and not with traditions of human errancy.2018, Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity—Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture, New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, →ISBN, page 64:
2
To receive or accept in condescension.
- Nancy's lips parted abruptly, as if there were angry words all ready to come; but her eyes, resting on Pollyanna's jubilantly trustful face, saw something that prevented the words being spoken. "Humph!" she vouchsafed. Then, showing her old-time interest, she went on: "But, say, it is queer, his speakin' to you, honestly, Miss Pollyanna. He don't speak ter no one; and he lives all alone in a great big lovely house all full of jest grand things, they say. Some says he's crazy, and some jest cross; and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet."1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC:
3
To disclose or divulge.
- She vouchsafed to me that she regretted ever marrying him.
- What have the gods told you? What have you foreseen? The gods have vouchsafed me nothing, told me nothing.
1 more example
- His predictions were at first to be guided by direct intimations vouchsafed to him by the god; […]1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 8, page 129:
- Synonyms
- deign
- Derived terms
- vouchsafement, vouchsafing