different between unthink vs think

English

Etymology

un- +? think

Verb

unthink (third-person singular simple present unthinks, present participle unthinking, simple past and past participle unthought)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To undo the process of thinking.
   • 1930, G. K. Chesterton, The Resurrection of Rome

     They at least had the immense and mighty imagination of which I speak; they could unthink the past. They could uncreate the Fall. With a reverence which moderns might think impudence, they could uncreate the Creation.

   • 2006, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Science on Stage: From Doctor Faustus to Copenhagen

     In An Experiment with an Air-Pump, characters repeatedly assert that "once you've thought something, you can't unthink it, can you?"

See also

• unring

English

Alternative forms

• thinck, thinke (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: th?ngk, IPA^(key): /???k/
• (Appalachian) IPA^(key): [?æ?k]
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken, thenchen, from Old English þen?an, þen?ean (“to think”), from Proto-Germanic *þankijan? (“to think, suppose, perceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think, feel, know”). Cognate with Scots think, thynk (“to think”), North Frisian teenk, taanke, tanke, tånke (“to think”), Saterland Frisian toanke (“to think”), West Frisian tinke (“to think”), Dutch denken (“to think”), Afrikaans dink (“to think”), Low German denken (“to think”), dinken, German denken (“to think”), Danish tænke (“to think”), Swedish tänka (“to think”), Norwegian Bokmål tenke (“to think”), Norwegian Nynorsk tenkja (“to think”), Icelandic þekkja (“to know, recognise, identify, perceive”), Latin tonge? (“know”).

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

1. (transitive) To ponder, to go over in one's head.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

2. (intransitive) To communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.
3. (intransitive) To conceive of something or someone (usually followed by of; infrequently, by on).
4. (transitive) To be of opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IX. "The Sea and the Desert", page 182.

     […] one man showed me a young oak which he had transplanted from behind the town, thinking it an apple-tree.
5. (transitive) To guess; to reckon.

6. To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).

   • The cupbearer shrugged up his shoulders in displeasure. "I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber," said he […]
7. To presume; to venture.

   • Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (ponder): See Thesaurus:ponder
• (communicate to oneself in one's mind): See Thesaurus:think
• (be of the opinion (that)): See Thesaurus:have opinion
• (guess, reckon): guess See Thesaurus:suppose
• (consider, judge, regard something as): See Thesaurus:deem

Derived terms

Related terms

• forthink
• thought
• thunk
• thank

Translations

Noun

think (usually uncountable, plural thinks)

1. (chiefly Britain) An act of thinking; consideration (of something).

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken (also thinchen, thünchen), from Old English þyncan (“to seem, appear”), from Proto-Germanic *þunkijan? (“to seem”). Cognate with Dutch dunken (“to seem, appear”), German dünken (“to seem, appear”), Danish tykkes (“to seem”), Swedish tycka (“to seem, think, regard”), Icelandic þykja (“to be regarded, be considered, seem”). More at methinks.

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

1. (obsolete except in methinks) To seem, to appear.

Translations

References

Scots

Etymology

From earlier thynk, from Middle English thynken, thinken, from Old English þencan, þen?ean.

Verb

think (third-person singular present thinks, present participle thinking, past thocht, past participle thocht)

1. (transitive) to think, to conceive, to have in mind
2. (transitive) to believe, to hold as an opinion, to judge; to feel, to have as an emotion
3. (transitive or intransitive) to ponder, to meditate, to consider, to reflect on
4. (transitive or intransitive) to have scruples, to doubt, to reconsider
5. to devise, to work out, to contrive
6. (archaic, with shame) to be ashamed

Noun

think (plural thinks)

1. thought, opinion, frequently one’s own opinion

References

• “think” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 19 June 2018.