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Webster 1913 Edition


Ostensibly

Os-ten′si-bly

(ŏs-tĕn′sĭ-bly̆)
,
adv.
In an ostensible manner; avowedly; professedly; apparently.
Walsh.
Ostensibly
, we were intended to prevent filibustering into Texas, but really as a menace to Mexico.
U. S. Grant.

Webster 1828 Edition


Ostensibly

OSTEN'SIBLY

,
adv.
In appearance; in a manner that is declared or pretended.
An embargo and non-intercourse which totally defeat the interests they are ostensible destined to promote.

Definition 2024


ostensibly

ostensibly

English

Adverb

ostensibly (not comparable)

  1. (modal) seemingly, apparently, on the surface
    • 1889, Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee, Dictionary of national biography
      On 13 June the peshwa signed a new treaty, ostensibly complying with the demands of the British government...
    • 1906, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, Chapter 9
      Up to a year or two ago it had been the custom to kill horses in the yards — ostensibly for fertilizer...
    • 2007, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Sandworms of Dune
      People strive to achieve perfection — ostensibly an honorable goal — but complete perfection is dangerous. To be imperfect, but human, is far preferable.
    • 2007 April 10, "Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?," The New York Times (retrieved 18 September 2015):
      Mr. Marwan’s story — a tale overflowing with the suspense and ruthless duplicity of a spy novel — began to take shape in the spring of 1969. He had come to London, ostensibly to consult a Harley Street doctor about a stomach ailment. He chose to be examined by a doctor whose offices had been used previously for a covert meeting between King Hussein of Jordan and the general director of the Israeli prime minister’s office."

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