vouchsafe

vouch +‎ safe

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌvaʊtʃˈseɪf/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˌvʌʊtʃˈseɪf]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪf
• Hyphenation: vouch‧safe

vouchsafe (third-person singular simple present vouchsafes, present participle vouchsafing, simple past and past participle vouchsafed)

1. To graciously give, to condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.
   • 1599?, William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene i, page 119:

     If Brutus will vouchſafe that Antony / May ſafely come to him ...

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets: Neuer before Imprinted‎, London: G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe], and are to be solde by William Aspley, OCLC 863623897, sonnet 135:

     Wilt thou, whoſe will is large and ſpacious, / Not once vouchſafe to hide my will in thine?

2. To receive or accept in condescension.
   • 1913 Eleanor Porter: Pollyanna: Chapter 8:

     Nancy's lips parted abruptly, as if there were angry words all ready to come; but her eyes, resting on Pollyanna's jubilantly trustful face, saw something that prevented the words being spoken.
     "Humph!" she vouchsafed. Then, showing her old-time interest, she went on: "But, say, it is queer, his speakin' to you, honestly, Miss Pollyanna. He don't speak ter no one; and he lives all alone in a great big lovely house all full of jest grand things, they say. Some says he's crazy, and some jest cross; and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet."

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:vouchsafe.

• deign

• vouchsafement
• vouchsafing