Improve your vocabulary by Quiz

Use hearsay in a sentence

Definition of hearsay:

  • (noun) gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth)
  • (adjective) heard through another rather than directly; "hearsay information"

Sentence Examples:

I might have waited for the report to have reached you from hearsay, or through the evening papers; but I preferred to be the one to tell you.

A hacker interested in cops has to depend on hearsay, underground legends, and what cops are willing to publicly reveal.

This I know not by hearsay or reading only, but I have learned it from actual experience as their governor.

And how very ignorant we are upon almost every subject, where hearsay evidence is all we can get!

We want no hearsay evidence here; how can you swear that she has had them when you did not see her have them?

From time to time she obtained some hearsay news through Polly; but Polly's chief interest now lay in her approaching marriage.

Which is all one as to say, that we might taste, smell, and see by the ears: a sort of philosophy worthy only of Sancho Panza, who had the faculty to see Dulcinea by hearsay.

He had nothing more than hearsay upon which to rely, and he used all the wilderness caution that he had acquired through nature and training.

I know intimately every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this time from sheer hearsay.

The first writers who have touched upon this subject have spoken of it very vaguely, or not being contemporaries of the times of which they wrote, could only describe from tradition or hearsay.

The Government Pleader at once objected to this statement being recorded, as it was hearsay.

Part of this conclusion came from hearsay, part from observation, limited though her opportunities had been for the latter.

A very idle story, and one you do not suppose the chancellor will believe, confirmed by the hearsay of the party interested in preserving the property.

Because one man thinks a thing, hundreds and thousands begin to think the same from mere hearsay, without examining and judging for themselves.

Some of you know what that means, but the most of you know it only by hearsay, and that's much the same as knowing nothing about it at all.

Not that I would maintain that it is a thing to be lightly learned by a glance of the eye, or hearsay fashion, as a tale that is told.

There he drank a bottle of champagne, which had been known to him hitherto only by hearsay.

A large percentage of facts was gained from gossip and hearsay about those long since dead.

Night came on me yesterday before I could reach Lee's Mill, and I have nothing but hearsay in regard to that place.

There may be those who know them well, but the writer only knows them by hearsay and introduces them as a certain type of character found in the early days.

Lindsey, I know precious little about my father, and what I do know is mostly from hearsay.

I might believe that a man had done good or bad things on hearsay: but I could have no feeling about him unless I had seen him.

It is asserted that before the Revolution he partook of the sacrament, but this is only affirmed by hearsay, and better evidence contradicts it.

I felt quite sure that he would be able to tell me what I wanted, or at least to give me a hint from hearsay.

A good many hearsay statements were taken to the effect that Morgan was as a matter of fact put in the magazine and kept there some days.

He himself, who won the lordship of such wide lands and died king of so fair a kingdom, which he had not inherited from his fathers, knew nothing, even by hearsay, of book learning.

Though he knew these islands so well, he had never visited them before, and his knowledge was all hearsay.

In this, again, is the basis for the distrust with which we meet testimony concerning hearsay.

And whether his reliability as a witness is not terribly weakened by his making no distinction between what was fact within his own knowledge, and what was simple hearsay?

He knew by hearsay that robbers seldom fired upon a good horse if there were a chance of making a capture of so valuable an acquisition.

No romantic episode in my whole life, so that I only know by hearsay of rendezvous, 'avenues of sighs,' and kisses.

All those who had been present, and some who knew nothing of the incident except by hearsay, were duly examined.

Of struggle, disappointment, hope, and all the other feelings which give to human life a dramatic interest, he knows little by hearsay and nothing by experience.

There is next to nothing to record, and I will spare the patient reader the usual stock of fabulous anecdotes, the product of hearsay and loose imaginations.

The critic himself knew nothing of peasant life except from books and hearsay, but his feelings and his inner convictions forced him to believe the story.

It is a revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other; consequently they are not obliged to believe it, for they have only the word of the first person that it was made to him.

The least action in a court of justice requires two witnesses; and we are ordered to believe all this on mere tradition and hearsay!

The arrival of a young but white-haired warrior caused such a sensation at court that the princess, who had already fallen in love with him on hearsay, became anxious to meet him.

Shelley's "hideous phantom" on hearsay evidence rather than encounter for themselves the terrors of his presence.

This affair of Laurie's was almost the first reminder of what she had known by hearsay, that Love and Death and Pain were the bones on which life was modeled.

Those, moreover, who have seen it, have seen only a part, and most of what they say is no more than hearsay.

All these benefits which we enjoy abundantly, are wholly denied to them, and are only known to them by hearsay.

Summon him hither, and I'll hear him in person; but your communication is mere hearsay, which my office compels me to reject.

And more awful were the hearsay tales they told me concerning men who had died at the hands of the police and who therefore could not testify for themselves.

We all know more or less about each other by hearsay, or about each other's people; and we're all pretty sure to have some common acquaintances.

Side valleys opened unexpectedly, and one knew from hearsay that gold mines were hidden there.

The statements concerning the intervening places must therefore be taken to have been based upon hearsay information.

I'll remind you that you allowed plenty of hearsay testimony when your witnesses were testifying.

At one point, with help from Henry, Mark brought forth information that Jane thought might be triple hearsay.

What he relates of Ireland he states to have found in books, or to have derived from hearsay.

I know of them, of course, by hearsay, but I should be glad to receive more intimate information.

As for inventing stories about real people, that may well have seemed permissible in an age when historians recorded mere hearsay as actual fact.

They do not know one another, and very few of them know much about the affairs of the concern, and if they know anything of the candidates that may be suggested, it is generally only by hearsay.

It was as much a part of their education to put their faith in these on hearsay evidence, as to put their faith in King, Lords and Commons.

Not content with hearsay evidence, however, Gerard relates what his eyes saw and hands touched.

This token would have fully quieted me, if it had only come directly to my ears or eyes: hearsay, however, is far too uncertain a thing.

In the dedication to his mother he compares himself, as the translator of this mystic treatise, to certain travelers who "speak upon hearsay of countries they were never in."

"He couldn't very well ask us, you know, without saying something like that, especially as he doesn't know us, except by hearsay, at all."

It was an eminently irregular trial, looking at it from a legal point of view, for the verbal evidence all was hearsay.

When, however, a report comes direct from the Government, there is no hearsay in the matter.

He thought, you see, without doubt, that if he could lay hands on you there was no one else could swear to anything but hearsay.

Fortunately, the great geographer has not been forced to depend upon hearsay evidence for recognition.

He congratulated himself upon no longer having to depend upon mere hearsay in regard to this psycho-pathologic phenomenon.

Then they enter into ignorant disputes on learned subjects, and talk of the art of medicine of which they know nothing save what they have learned by hearsay.

He knew nothing of fallen women except by hearsay and from books, and he had never in his life been in the houses in which they live.

"You see, I speak only from hearsay," he continued, with that air of agreeing with her which only the Latin possesses.

It would be useless for you to attempt to be spokesman in this matter, because you are a new girl in High School and know nothing of past class matters except from hearsay.

I have referred to my own and earlier part in the matter only to make plain that I do not speak about it from mere hearsay.

Let us, however, endeavor to trace up some of this hearsay evidence as far towards its source as we are able.

Their dead were, generally, infantry soldiers whom it was impossible for them to help, whose life they only knew by hearsay, and whose place of burial they sometimes do not know.

That it may have been known to them either through travel or hearsay is of course possible.

They are almost unknown to history, for aside from two or three short accounts, based mostly on hearsay, we find no mention of them.

I had thus an opportunity of gathering much hearsay information, and was able to compare opinions which differed widely enough.

Better the merest glimmer of light perceived thus than the hearsay of the revelations of others.

How much hearsay is necessary to form a conviction equal to that of a man who, having seen the thing, can flatter himself that he has a sort of certainty?

There are now, too, misunderstandings of which in the old days I had no idea except from hearsay.

The chief proof of their guilt consisted in a hearsay from one Lady Wingfield, who was dead.

They have heard but little of this great and glorious Cause, and the knowledge they have is for the most part based only on hearsay.

It means that man must forget all hearsay and examine truth himself, for he does not know whether statements he hears are in accordance with reality or not.

However, on some vague hearsay that the Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine made the Bible, hundreds in this city are now risking the salvation of their souls.

How could one whose small knowledge of women good and bad came mostly through hearsay be sure of a woman?

They were not dismissed because of idle hearsay, but because of absolute and convincing proof.

He had never been under fire, and knew only from hearsay just what it meant to be in a ship that might be destroyed any instant without the least chance of anyone escaping.

I may decide this in private, but I must have depositions on oath before I do so, and at present I have nothing but hearsay.

The original described in the letter, also from hearsay, was probably an early type of organ.

As time goes on, however, the rule against hearsay evidence, instead of losing its force, is demonstrating its usefulness.

Beverley and Vincent absolutely well by hearsay, though she had never met them in the flesh.

"You are marveling how I know so much about a thing that is based on hearsay and rumors," continued the narrator as she pointed to a manuscript on the table.

He must no longer be followed implicitly; whatever he relates of the intervening circumstances till Richard himself came to Conway, he must have derived from hearsay.

Appetites attended by reason are all those whatsoever which men exercise from a persuasion: for many things there are which they desire to behold, and possess, on hearsay and persuasion.

For such purposes, a rapid glance at the newspaper, or even what is picked up by hearsay, will, generally speaking, be sufficient.

No man is bound to act on hearsay evidence, especially when that evidence has been acquired through a confidential channel.

It is all hearsay, but it is the only evidence we can have; it is the only evidence we have of the price of sales of any description.

Two years afterwards, in 1769, when a man of forty, Boone came to see for himself the things that he knew by hearsay, and he found that the half had not been told.

They stand so high as men of character and learning, that I am tempted to tell their story on hearsay, for want of better authority.

My grandfather was a man who never was content to believe anything from mere hearsay, when he had the power of investigating the truth of an account.

Both the intelligent man and the ignorant mass judge not from a thorough knowledge of the subject, but either from hearsay or false interpretation.

He mentions, on hearsay, that Coleridge once stayed in the square, but this was probably only on the occasion of a visit to friends.

The fact is, it all happened once when I was east on business, and I really know but little about it, except from hearsay.

"I know from hearsay, that is all," Darrell replied, quietly; "I have heard the story a number of times."