sure

I. adjective (surer; surest) Etymology: Middle English seur, sure, from Anglo-French seur, from Latin securus secure Date: 13th century 1. obsolete safe from danger or harm 2. firmly established ; steadfast <

a sure hold

> 3. reliable, trustworthy <

a sure friend

> 4. a. marked by or given to feelings of confident certainty <

I'm sure I'm right

> b. characterized by a lack of wavering or hesitation <

sure brush strokes

> <

a sure hand

> 5. admitting of no doubt ; indisputable <

spoke from sure knowledge

> 6. a. bound to happen ; inevitable <

sure disaster

> b. bound, destined <

is sure to win

> 7. careful to remember, attend to, or find out something <

be sure to lock the door

> • sureness noun Synonyms: sure, certain, positive, cocksure mean having no doubt or uncertainty. sure usually stresses the subjective or intuitive feeling of assurance <

felt sure that I had forgotten something

>. certain may apply to a basing of a conclusion or conviction on definite grounds or indubitable evidence <

police are certain about the cause of the fire

>. positive intensifies sureness or certainty and may imply opinionated conviction or forceful expression of it <

I'm positive that's the person I saw

>. cocksure implies presumptuous or careless positiveness <

you're always so cocksure about everything

>. II. adverb Date: 14th century surely Usage: Most commentators consider the adverb sure to be something less than completely standard; surely is usually recommended as a substitute. Our current evidence shows, however, that sure and surely have become differentiated in use. Sure is used in much more informal contexts than surely. It is used as a simple intensive <

I can never know how much I bored her, but, be certain, she sure amused me — Norman Mailer

> and, because it connotes strong affirmation, it is used when the speaker or writer expects to be agreed with <

it's a moot point whether politicians are less venal than in Twain's day. But they're sure as the devil more intrusive — Alan Abelson

> <

he sure gets them to play — D. S. Looney

>. Surely, like sure, is used as a simple intensive <

I surely don't want to leave the impression that I had an unhappy childhood — E. C. Welsh

> but it occurs in more formal contexts than sure. Unlike sure it may be used neutrally—the reader or hearer may or may not agree <

it would surely be possible, within a few years, to program a computer to construct a grammar — Noam Chomsky

> and it is often used when the writer is trying to persuade <

surely a book on the avant-garde cannot be so conventional — Karl Shapiro

>.