assume

Verb

assume (third-person singular simple present assumes, present participle assuming, simple past and past participle assumed)

1. To authenticate by means of belief; to surmise; to suppose to be true, especially without proof.
   • We assume that, as her parents were dentists, she knows quite a bit about dentistry.
   • Levelling of ME /irC/ and /urC/, which Orton assumes for the whole of the North (S. Durham §§411-13), has not taken place in Dent and S.We, where ME /urC/ remains (4:46).1967, Bertil Hedevind, The Dialect of Dentdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Uppsala: Appelbergs Boktryckeri AB, § 4.8, page 98
2. To take on a position, duty or form.
   • Mr. Jones will assume the position of a lifeguard until a proper replacement is found.
   • Trembling they stand while Jove assumes the throne.1715–1720, Homer, “Book I”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC
3. To adopt a feigned quality or manner; to claim without right; to arrogate.
   • He assumed an air of indifference.
   • Assume a virtue, if you have it not.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
4. To receive, adopt (a person).
   • The sixth was a young knight of lesser renown and lower rank, assumed into that honorable company.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co....
5. To adopt (an idea or cause).