ppl. a. [f. prec. vb. + -ED.]
1. Taken to or upon oneself; appropriated; usurped.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 189. Angels in assumed bodies can [not] be wounded.
1794. Paley, Evid., II. vi. § 22. He was sitting in judgement in that assumed capacity.
2. Pretended, ‘put on.’
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. xiv. Assumed despondence bent his head.
1849. P. Cunningham, Handbk. Lond. (1850), 547. Mendicants who live on assumed sores.
3. Taken for granted, adopted as a basis of reasoning.
1810. Bentham, Packing (1821), 132. The assumed root ascribed to the corruption was nothing worse than casual irregularity.
1845. M’Culloch, Taxation, I. iv. 124. The answer to the question … depends materially on the assumed rate of interest.
