Also 5–6 ambyguyte, etc. [a. Fr. ambiguïté (16th c. in Littré) ad. med.L. ambiguitāt-em, n. of state f. ambigu-us AMBIGUOUS.]

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  † 1.  Subjectively: Wavering of opinion; hesitation, doubt, uncertainty, as to one’s course. Obs.

2

c. 1400.  Beryn, 2577. Dout, pro, contra, and ambiguite.

3

1426.  Pol. Poems, II. 131. To put away … Holy the doute and the ambyguyté.

4

1502.  Arnold, Chron. (1811), 10. If deficultye or ambyguyte and dout were vpon ony artycle.

5

c. 1534.  trans. Polyd. Verg., Eng. Hist., I. 160. Hee beganne to stande in great ambiguitee of his saftie.

6

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faustus, i. 78. Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve me of all ambiguities?

7

  † 2.  concr. An uncertainty, a dubiety. Obs.

8

1598.  Barckley, Felic. Man. (1631), 369. Here riseth an ambiguity of no small importance.

9

1658.  Bramhall, Consecr. Bps., iv. 99. And this was the onely question or ambiguity which was moved.

10

  3.  Objectively: Capability of being understood in two or more ways; double or dubious signification, ambiguousness.

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c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, VI. ii. (1554), 148 a. To auoide al ambiguitie, To declare the summe of mine entent.

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1549.  Compl. Scotl., x. 83. Appollo gaue … ane doutsum ansuere of ambiguite.

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1675.  Baxter, Cath. Theol., I. I. 57. The Schoolmens contention whether the Son be freely begotten, and the Holy Ghost freely procceed, ariseth from the ambiguity of the word free.

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1768.  Blackstone, Comm., II. 71. The king … took a handle from the ambiguity of this expression to claim them both.

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1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 665. To clear the fundamental laws of the realm from ambiguity.

16

1866.  Argyll, Reign of Law, ii. (ed. 4), 99. Confusion of thought arising … out of the ambiguity of language.

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  4.  concr. A word or phrase susceptible of more than one meaning; an equivocal expression.

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1591.  Horsey, Trav. (1857), 207. This Emperowr reduced the ambiguities and uncertanties of their lawes … into a most plain forme.

19

1668.  Dryden, Evenings Love, 56. Give me your hand, and answer me without Ambages or Ambiguities.

20

1699.  Bentley, Phal., 298. What a wretched Ambiguity would be here … unworthy of so elegant a Poet?

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1871.  Markby, Elem. Law, 415. Those plausible ambiguities which not infrequently occur in English law.

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