Hearsay definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (8)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun Unverified information heard or received from another; rumor.
noun Law Evidence based on the reports of others rather than the personal knowledge of a witness and therefore generally not admissible as testimony.

Century Dictionary (3)

Information communicated by another; report; common talk; rumor; gossip. Not having had, as yet, an opportunity of looking at the Salisbury codex, I can judge of it only from hearsay. Rock, Church of our Fathers i. 6. Sometimes a rumor, a hearsay, an inarticulate whisper, Came with its airy hand to point and beckon her forward. Longfellow, Evangeline, ii. 1. Let a prejudice be bequeathed, carried in the air, adopted by hearsay, … however it may come, these minds will give it habitation. George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, vi. 12.
Of or pertaining to or depending upon hearsay, or the talk of others; told or given at second hand. Liable to be imposed upon by the hearsay relations of credulity. Goldsmith, Pref. to Brookes's Nat. Hist. She blamed herself for telling hearsay tales. Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien.
Hearsay evidence evidence at second hand; testimony the relevancy of which does not consist in what the witness giving it himself perceived, but in what he derived by information from another person. It is generally excluded as objectionable, because its credibility cannot be estimated from the credit to be given to the witness, but depends on the veracity or competency of the third person, not before the court. Thus, if a witness testifies that a bystander told him that the prisoner struck the deceased, this is hearsay, for its credibility depends on the bystander, and he should be produced; but if he testifies that the accused admitted to him that he had struck the deceased, or, before the blow, told him he intended to strike it, or testifies that he heard the outcry of the deceased on being struck, it is not hearsay. Exceptions to the rule are made in respect to some forms of tradition as to facts of family history, and boundaries, and dying declarations (which see, under declaration). In some cases (as in proof of any general customs, or matters of common tradition or repute), the courts admit of hearsay evidence, or an account of what persons deceased have declared in their life-time. Blackstone, Com., III. xxiii.

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Examples (39)

Thousands eschewed important immunizations based on hearsay, and I'm not entirely confident that those types of people will look past the headlines of these kind of studies. — Original Signal - Transmitting Digg
Legal counsel may be denied for up to 21 days, and "insubmissible" evidence or hearsay is allowed. — GlobalResearch.ca
The government has argued that the hearsay is admissible due to several exceptions in the rules, but for reasons that will be boring to anyone who isn't a lawyer (and most of us who are) I find their arguments to this effect to be less-than-compelling. — The Hardball Times
Bonds 'legal team was asking Illston to exclude from trial drug test results they say are inconclusive and transcripts they claim are hearsay, among other evidence. — RGJ.com - Latest News
Bonds's legal team was asking Illston to exclude from trial drug test results they say are inconclusive and transcripts they claim are hearsay, among other evidence. — The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed

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guesswork · eyewitness · conjecture · innuendo · rumour · rumor · bugaboo · first-hand · bruit · corroborative · sophistry · wrong-headedness

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Century Dictionary (1)

= D. (het) hooren zeggen = Middle Low German hōr-seggen = German hörensagen; from hear + infinitive say. The verb phrase, chiefly in the preterit, occurs in Middle English (herd sain) and Anglo-Saxon (hy¯rde secgan).

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