deliberate

Inherited from Middle English deliberat(e), borrowed from Latin dēlīberātus, perfect passive participle of dēlīberō (“to consider, weigh well”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dē- +‎ *līberō / lībrō (“to weigh”)), from *libera / libra (“a balance”); see librate. Doublet of deliber.

• (adjective):
  • enPR: dĭlĭbʹərət, IPA^(key): /dɪˈlɪbəɹət/
  • (weak vowel merger) enPR: dəlĭbʹərət, IPA^(key): /dəˈlɪbəɹət/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (verb):
  • enPR: dĭlĭbʹərāt, IPA^(key): /dɪˈlɪbəɹeɪt/
  • (weak vowel merger) enPR: dəlĭbʹərāt, IPA^(key): /dəˈlɪbəɹeɪt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧lib‧er‧ate

deliberate (comparative more deliberate, superlative most deliberate)

1. Done on purpose; intentional.

   Synonyms: purposeful, volitional; see also Thesaurus:intentional

   Antonyms: unintentional, unwitting

   a deliberate attempt to cover up his crime

   • 2004 April 20, Ian Traynor, “Hague rules Srebrenica was act of genocide”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 was an act of genocide in a deliberate attempt by the Bosnian Serb leadership to exterminate part of the Muslim community, appeal judges ruled in a crucial case at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday.

2. Formed with deliberation; carefully considered; not sudden or rash.

   Synonyms: careful, cautious, well-advised; see also Thesaurus:cautious

   a deliberate opinion; a deliberate measure or result

   • 1603-4, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure:

     settled visage and deliberate word

3. Of a person, weighing facts and arguments with a view to a choice or decision; carefully considering the probable consequences of a step; slow in determining.

   Synonyms: circumspect, thoughtful

   The jury took eight hours to come to its deliberate verdict.

4. Not hasty or sudden; slow.
   • 1803, William Wirt, The Letters of the British Spy:

     His enunciation was so deliberate.

deliberate (third-person singular simple present deliberates, present participle deliberating, simple past and past participle deliberated)

1. (transitive) To consider carefully; to weigh well in the mind.

   It is now time for the jury to deliberate the guilt of the defendant.

2. (intransitive) To consider the reasons for and against anything; to reflect.

• Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ponder

• deliberation
• deliberative

• “deliberate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “deliberate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “deliberate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

deliberate

1. second-person plural present and imperative of deliberare

dēlīberāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēlīberō

• "deliberate", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

deliberate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of deliberar combined with te