Also 5–6 surmyse, (5 sirmyse, sormyse, 6 sormise), 6–7 surmyze, 6–8 surmize. [f. AF., OF. surmis-c, pa. pple. of surmettre to accuse: see SURMIT and cf. prec. and SURPRISE v.]
† 1. trans. To put upon some one as a charge or accusation; to charge on or upon, allege against a person; spec. in Law, to submit as a charge or information, allege formally. Obs.
c. 1400. Beryn, 3665. His owne fawte, & his owne wrong, On beryn he hath surmysid.
1473. Warkw., Chron. (Camden), 5. Humfrey Haward and other aldermen were arested, and treasoune surmysed uppon them.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 98. Care not what ony persone sayth, suspecteth, surmiseth, whyspereth or rowneth of ye herein erth.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 59 b. The straungiers … surmysed a complaynt againste the poore carpenter.
a. 1557. Mrs. M. Basset, trans. More’s Treat. Passion, M.’s Wks. 1354/1. That he should … haue heynous crimes surmysed against him.
† b. const. clause or acc. and inf.
1467–8. in Oxf. Stud. Soc. & Legal Hist. (1914), IV. 217. Where it is surmysed by the seid bill that the seid William….
1480. Cov. Leet Bk., 439. These be þe names of the ffeldes þat þe seid Laurens surmysed shuld be Comien þat were kept seuerell.
1495. P. Warbeck, Declar., in Bacon, Hen. VII. (1622), 151. My mortall Enemie hath … falsely surmised mee to bee a fayned Person, giuing mee Nick-names.
1509–10. Act 1 Hen. VII., c. 4. Preamble, Enditementes for offenses surmysed to be doone contrarye to the same Statutes.
c. 1589. in Horsey’s Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), App. 318. Hierom Horssey and one Anthony Marshe surmised to the Counsaill that the agent had written treason against the State.
† c. after as.
1464. Cov. Leet Bk., 323. We … maruayllyng gretely … of your suffrance … yf it be as is surmysid.
1528. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 110/1. Thinkinge … that … Luther said not so euyll as is surmised vpon him.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding, i. 4. Neyther dooe wee refuse your fantasies bicause they be Catholike, as you surmise.
1623. in N. Shaks. Soc. Trans. (1885), 507. As in the said Bill is falsely surmised.
† d. absol. To make allegations.
1528. Roy, Rede me (Arb.), 32. Wherfor agaynst vs they will nowe surmyse Seynge that gone is the masse.
† e. pregnantly. To allege falsely or groundlessly. Obs.
1477. Hen. VII., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. I. 20. The grete malice … as she shewed lately in sending hider of a fayned boye, surmising him to have been the son of the Duc of Clarence.
1530. in W. H. Turner, Sel. Rec. Oxford (1880), 88. M. Burton saithe the article is surmysed and nothyng trew.
† f. To accuse, charge (a person) with. rare–1.
a. 1485. Fortescue, Wks. (1869), 499. Sir James of Audeley … which was surmised with the gettinge of the said Phillipe.
† g. ? To impugn. Obs. rare–1.
1609. Alex. Hume, Admon., Wks. (S.T.S.), 180. Persuading them that it wes the … defence of treu religioun (then surmysed by the Earles of Huntlie, Errol, and Angous) that he intended.
† 2. To devise, plan, contrive, esp. falsely or maliciously. Chiefly const. inf. Obs.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas. (Percy Soc.), 3. As was the guyse … Of the poetes olde, a tale to surmyse, To cloke the truthe of their infirmitie.
1549–62. Sternhold & H., Ps. xxvii. 14. They surmise against me still false witnesse to depose.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 152. The Jewis did … euer mair surmyse, With vnkyndnes to keill me.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 198. All I surmise Is shrewdly stopt.
† 3. To suppose, imagine (that a thing is so); to expect. Obs.
1599. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 104. Alexander … all the worlde subdued as I surmise.
1572. Act 14 Eliz., c. 12 § 2. The said Acte hathe not … brought the good Effecte that then was hoped and surmysed.
1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 135. I … thinke it meere folly for a man to breake hys necke wilfullye, surmising happily to please his maistresse therby.
1624. Quarles, Job, Poems (1717), 187. I’m scorned of my Friends, whose prosp’rous state Surmises me … to be cast away From Heaven’s regard.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 340. Surmise not then His presence to these narrow bounds confin’d or Paradise or Eden.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 995. ’Tis impious to surmize, the pow’rs divine To ruin doom the Jove-descended line.
† b. To form an idea of, conceive, imagine. Also absol. Obs.
1586. A. Day, Engl. Secretorie, I. (1625), 43. It is incredible to thinke, and vnpossible to bee surmised … how detestable hath beene the originall progression … of his most wicked … life.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 347. So get thee gone, that I may know my greefe, ’Tis but surmiz’d, whiles thou art standing by. Ibid. (1602), Ham., II. ii. 108. I haue a daughter … Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke, Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise.
† 4. To suspect. Obs.
1571. Campion, Hist. Irel., II. ix. (1633), 108. Him they surmized to keepe a Kalender of all their doings.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 236. If this discourse makes any surmise that we did some things against our conscience while wee liued in this Monastery.
b. To give an inkling of, hint. rare–1.
1820. Ranken, Hist. France, VIII. I. vi. 250. There were state secrets which he never surmised to them.
5. To form a notion that the thing in question may be so, on slight grounds or without proof; to infer conjecturally. Const. obj. cl. or simple obj.
1700. Dryden, Sigismonda & Guisc., 171. What Thoughts he had beseems not me to say, Though some surmise he went to fast and pray.
1768. H. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, 59. Such omissions cannot but induce us to surmise that Henry had never been certain of the deaths of the princes.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, V. viii. II. 629. The Governor-General surmised a circumstance, which always seems to have animated him to peculiar severity.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., iii. 94. Whatever the Jewish nation might surmise or know concerning a future life.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xvii. 83. Is it going too far to surmise that during William’s Lenten pilgrimage to Caen, it was fully arranged who should be the next to fill the throne of Augustine?
b. absol. or intr.
1820. Keats, Cap & Bells, vii. Show him a garden, and with speed no less, He’ll surmise sagely of a dwelling house.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 160. Can I know, who but surmise?
1906. Beatrice Harraden, Scholar’s Dau., xi. 220. We were only surmising. It was stupid of me to begin it.
† 6. ? To take up into itself. Obs. rare–1.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, V. 70. This coate [of the ventricle] first receiueth and surmiseth, all the Veynes, Arteries, and sinewes that are reached to the ventricle.
