implying

Verb

imply (third-person singular simple present implies, present participle implying, simple past and past participle implied)

1. (transitive) To have as a necessary consequence; to lead to (something) as a consequence.
   • Correlation does not imply causation

   Synonyms:

   entail, implicate, import

2. (transitive) To suggest by logical inference.
   • When I state that your dog is brown, I am not implying that all dogs are brown.
3. (transitive) To hint; to insinuate; to suggest tacitly and avoid a direct statement.
   • What do you mean "we need to be more careful with hygiene"? Are you implying that I don't wash my hands?

   Synonyms:

   allude, hint, infer, insinuate, suggest, advert, indicate, inkle, intimate, moot

4. (archaic) To enfold, entangle.
   • And in his bosome secretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall sting implyes.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   envelop, wrap up, ensnare, implicate, enmesh, ensnarl, entangle, foul, involve, mat

See all 5 meanings of imply