demurring

Verb

demur (third-person singular simple present demurs, present participle demurring, simple past and past participle demurred)

1. (intransitive) Chiefly followed by to, and sometimes by at or on: to object or be reluctant; to balk, to take exception.
   • I demur to that statement.

   Synonyms:

   oppose, scruple

2. (intransitive) To submit a demurrer (“motion by a party to a legal action for the immediate or summary judgment of the court on the question of whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defence, and hence whether the party bringing the motion is required to answer or proceed further”).
   • He that demurreth in Law confeſſeth all ſuch matters of fact as are well and ſufficiently pleaded.1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Escuage”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 3, section 97, folio...
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To endure, to last.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To linger, to tarry.
   • The Eele is here, and in this hollow cave / You'll finde, if that our looks on it demurre, / A great wast in the bottome of his furre.1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “The Antidoted Fanfreluches: Or, A Galimatia of Extravagant Conceits Found in an Ancient...
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To remain, to stay.

   Synonyms:

   abide

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To suspend judgment or proceedings because of a difficulty or doubt; to put off the conclusion or determination of a matter; to delay, to hesitate, to pause.
   • [The Governor of Picardie and Chastilion of Newhaven said] there muſt be much vvaſt of time if the Engliſh ſhould lye at Guiſnes and the French at Ardes, and that the equality vvould be more, and the diſhonour to one of the ſides leſſe, if the entervievv ſhould be vpon the Frontires, then if one...a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC, page...

See all 17 meanings of demur