different between intimation vs signifying

English

Etymology

From Middle French intimation, from Latin intimatio

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt??me???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

intimation (plural intimations)

1. The act of intimating.
2. The thing intimated.
3. Announcement; declaration.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

     They made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a stork, should be banished.

4. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference.
   • 1862, Henry David Thoreau, Walking:

     At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it as much brighter.

   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 378:

     And actually I had important intimations to communicate as he faced the end. But intimations weren't much use.

Translations

Related terms

• intimacy
• intimate

References

• “intimation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Verb

signifying

1. present participle of signify
   • Macbeth (c. 1603), Act V, Scene V:

     Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

     that struts and frets his hour upon the stage

     and then is heard no more: it is a tale

     told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

     signifying nothing.

Noun

signifying (plural signifyings)

1. signification
   • 1939, Coleman Roberts Griffith, Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning

     For the sake of convenience, we may call these pointings or signifyings the secondary phase of meaning.