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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:

The witness on the stand is the real plaintiff here, his are the interests that are at stake, and if he chooses to give evidence adverse to those interests, evidence relevant to the matter at issue, although it may be hearsay evidence, he has a perfect right to do so.

His Honor will tell you, in his charge, I have no doubt, that this boy's statement, founded, as he himself says, on hearsay, is valueless in law, and should have no weight in your minds.

What he tells on his own authority, he vouches for as true, but what he relates as hearsay, he leaves to the reader's judgment for belief.

He had no extraordinary peculiarity by which she might have recognized him at first sight from hearsay, nor was he in any way connected with public affairs.

No, I am certain, and I hope it will meet with none to prove that these slaves are freemen; for all that he has said, by his own confession, was only but hearsay.

It was an experiment; and if in one sense it failed, because it did not take account of energies and elements unused, in another sense it succeeded, because one cannot learn things in this world by hearsay, but only by burning one's fingers in what seemed so comfortable a flame.

Now, this arrangement must have been made orally, or in writing; if orally, testimony to the words uttered will not be hearsay, further than testimony to what a man has seen will be eyesight.

Under this charge, whether made specifically or in connection with another crime, the rules of evidence have been opened and relaxed until the wildest and most remote hearsay is freely admitted for the plain purpose of convicting men who have really been guilty of no specific act.

He instantly confessed his fault, and acknowledged, with the utmost frankness, that he spoke from hearsay, and very lightly.

He, however, gives it as hearsay only, and, though the circumstantial details might not have been reported to him correctly, the substantial fact may be true nevertheless.

He knew of these monuments only from hearsay and tradition, for the tragic fate of ancient Troy was then still in fresh remembrance, and had already been for centuries in the mouth of all minstrels.

There will be no call for contradiction of any slurs upon character through perversion of facts or the repetition of hearsay calumny in its pages.

As in the case of all men in the trenches, I heard things and stories that especially impressed me, so I have written them as hearsay, not taking to myself credit as their originator.

Nevertheless, while I know naught of Nan Brent's case, except that which is founded on hearsay evidence, I can condone her offense because I can understand it.

She knew the facts only upon hearsay, and only in case a misdemeanor were actually proved would it be possible for the police to interfere as she desired.

Not more than one in ten had ever really tried it; the other nine had contented themselves with hearsay evidence and a peep through the door.

These are the things, he feebly understood, that women do for men; and what had been mere hearsay to his strong manhood had become experience.

Another officer recounts from hearsay the remarkable conduct of an Indian, who sprang into the midst of the English and killed two of them with his hatchet; then mounted on a log and defied them all.

Here was a young girl, inexperienced in world and men, joyfully sinking her own life in that of a man whom, but a few months before, had been only a matter of hearsay to her.

He made tributary to the Romans those that knew not the Roman name even by hearsay, and yet was unable to prevail against the Goths, despite his frequent attempts.

Among marvels and things passing even fable are these things which I shall tell as having myself beheld, and not from hearsay.

Instead, he wrote two pages filled with unsubstantiated hearsay and charges of insubordination and dishonesty based on Lyle's accusation and I want to answer them!

As this, however, is only hearsay, I will not vouch for its truth; though from my knowledge of the parties I am afraid it was only too true.

That he shall keep abreast of the tide of discovery and improvement, and that upon these subjects he shall know, not trusting to mere hearsay or to unintelligent prejudice for his impressions.

Excisions have been made only where it has been felt necessary to conceal the identity of the deponent or to omit what are merely hearsay statements, or are palpably irrelevant.

Now, I knew by hearsay every crease in his trousers, but nobody had told me that his face was a vision that would never fade from my memory.

On the other hand, hearsay evidence is viewed legally and often by the layman with suspicion; in most causes of action being barred out altogether.

The public of our American exhibitions knows only vaguely and by hearsay what our mural painters have done and are doing.

Their snouts are so long and thin, it is also claimed that two can drink from a jug at the same time; never having seen it done, however, this is not vouched for, but merely repeated as hearsay.

For there has rarely been a time when the juridical maxim that "hearsay is not evidence" ought to be more sternly insisted on.

This statement is explicit; yet our author endeavors to set it aside on the ground that 'not only is it based upon mere hearsay, but it is altogether indefinite as to the character of the contents, and the writer admits his own ignorance () regarding them'.

For if they erred so shamefully when they had ocular proof, how could they speak with certainty, where they were led by hearsay?

Some men whom he valeted might have been doped with opium, certainly, but all did not exhibit those indications which, from hearsay, he associated with the resin of the white poppy.

Hence, a copy of no instrument is admitted, if the original be in existence; no hearsay witness is received, if ocular testimony can be produced.

Fortunately I was already prepared by hearsay for their peculiarities; I might otherwise have found it difficult to repress some expression of astonishment.

Every one knew of him by hearsay as the noblest of men, and every one rejoiced that the best of patriots and the most excellent of citizens should have attained the highest dignity in the county.

"I have learned much from my attendants, and know this world pretty well by hearsay," said the prince, as they reclined on the rich carpet which was spread on the roof.

For we knew, both from hearsay and experience, that the slavers were as wily as foxes, and were in the habit of adopting all sorts of queer expedients to evade pursuit.

I speak of course from hearsay, as what I am about to relate occurred just before I came into existence; indeed, of many other subsequent events which I shall venture to describe I cannot be said to have any very vivid recollection, although present at the time.

We know it from hearsay, and we mention it in connection with this sad infirmity of physical constitution; which puts it upon very nearly the ground of a temporary and almost irresponsible insanity.

I had seen him before, and by hearsay was more than familiar with his repute as an excellent servant to his not so excellent master.

A good many of these people were men and women from offices and stores in American cities who knew boats only by hearsay.

The attorney visibly hesitated, and it was Ripley Halstead who replied as gently as possible: "Often one believes that one can recall experiences of their very early years which they have actually learned from hearsay, from countless repetition in their presence."

"The court in this instance, when so grave an issue is at stake, has decided not to accept hearsay evidence," announced the presiding officer, as soon as all noise in the room had ceased.

Those clever young men, self-appointed historians of a period they know only by hearsay, may deplore or envy its decadence.

Even grown people knew nothing, except by vague hearsay, of cheese so runny that if you didn't care to eat it you could drink it.

The custom of permitting a witness to wander at will over the entire field of knowledge, hearsay, surmise and opinion has several distinct advantages over our practice.

We had only what we stood in, excepting the rough map, which was drawn from hearsay and our scanty knowledge of the country.

I never saw the place, and my knowledge of it is confined to a bald hearsay, albeit of the Deeds that were done within its walls I can affirm the certitude with Truth.

At the same time we see that some hearsay knowledge of China had made its way into the Roman world before the days of Ptolemy.

Much of his information is, of course, mere hearsay, and a great deal of it, by the light of what we now know, is not only misleading but nonsensical.

Whether they had misunderstood the chief, or whether he was merely speaking from hearsay, certainly the view was far from correct that the mountains which they were approaching lay near the sea.

Thomas Paine well said that what is revelation to the man who receives it, is only hearsay to the man who gets it at secondhand.

Father places more faith in hearsay and in the statements of the knaves who are leading him on, than he does in anything we can say.

They attempt to solve them by the help of knowledge acquired in girlhood; and if that cannot be done, they either give them up as beyond the domain of women, or else trust to hearsay for a solution.

They also reported the wonder, on hearsay, and every mail brought them reiterated instructions to find and send it at any cost.

This is the testimony of hearsay, but, allowing for exaggeration, the great impression which she made upon her contemporaries is amply shown.

Here I am, you see, for the first time in twenty-six years really at grips with life, about to experience for myself the troubles and perplexities which so far have been mere matters of hearsay!

It was an effort to introduce the name, but she was determined to do so; nay, more, a mysterious impulse seemed to urge her to intimate something of the true position, to let this man realize that she and Jim Blair were more to each other than mere hearsay acquaintances.

Out of a mass of hearsay, the idle stories of a lot of workmen whose idea of humor has been to make a butt of you, you have built up this fantastic fairy tale.

There was just enough of truth in it to make the tale plausible; and the falsehood related to points which, as they were affirmed upon hearsay, he could not repel by proof.

You can learn by rote and by hearsay many things; but if you have won insight, you have won it not without the aid of your own individual experience.

And then how can a socialist who knows nothing except from hearsay of family life, upon which basis the whole structure of society rests, who knows nothing of where the shoe pinches the father of a family, talk to married men about what they owe to themselves and others?

He wintered in the district of Swat on our north-west frontier, a territory which is quite unknown to us except by hearsay, and which has only been occupied by the Mongol and Macedonian conquerors.

Not infrequently it would happen that such enforced confession related to a crime that, as later turned out, had only been based on hearsay, and had really never been done.

He directs the proceedings of the trial, sees that it is conducted in an orderly way, endeavors to prevent any falsehoods from getting before the jury, keeps away from the jury any hearsay or gossip, or expressions of prejudice, or other matters not founded on absolute knowledge and truth.

At the time of Selina's weird seizure I was unfortunately away from home, on a loathsome visit to an aunt; and my account is therefore feebly compounded from hearsay.

They accused her of setting herself up as a censor, and giving judgments founded upon hearsay testimony rather than sound legal evidence.

You, sir, are fully acquainted with this, and know that men generally judge of everything by prejudice, hearsay, and chance.

A good deal of the blame, I think, is a hearsay, originally circulated by interested persons and innocently magnified by others.

Then followed a taunting verse, on a Roman Emperor's sister, who, charmed with him by hearsay, fell in love with him at a distance, and offered her heart and hand to him, which however he refused.

I know very well, by hearsay, several sorts of prudent pleasures, effectually so, and glorious to boot; but opinion has not power enough over me to give me an appetite to them.

I could plead knowledge, also, of those adventures at the castle which ended so frightfully, and repeat them as if they came to me by hearsay.

"There is one point I may count in my favor, however," she said; "and that is, he will be hardly likely to reveal the fact that for the last five years he has acted as my agent, and for that reason it will be only possible for him to give his evidence on hearsay."

He carefully differentiates hearsay from fact, never fails to stamp a fable or legend as such, and generally quotes his authorities where he has them.

My husband gave her a magnificent establishment, and made so little effort to conceal his relations with her that I learned all the particulars of the scandalous affair through public hearsay.

Much less are the aforesaid witnesses to be believed, lest more credence be given to hearsay evidence than to its original.

Neither can I think that posterity will ever believe that this hearsay evidence was admitted from the mouths of the most infamous miscreants that ever got out of a jail.

He had to be noiseless as a mink, because he knew by hearsay that the ears of the mountain ram were almost as keen as an owl's.

This witness also deposed to some other enormities which he said he had heard of from the same woman, herself speaking from hearsay.

He was merely a Roman gentleman and an ex-official, of literary proclivities, writing a picturesque military history, partly from hearsay, partly from official records.

The exaggeration was doubtless on his part unintentional; he wrote from hearsay, a medium through which facts are frequently altered and perverted.

When he was past eighty years of age he set to work, like another Jeremy Bentham, to abolish the admission of hearsay evidence into French legal proceedings.

"Its history," he says, "its topography, its antiquities, had formed the bond of a little college society devoted to this queen of cities, while the dream of its longings had been the hope of one day seeing what could then only be known through hearsay tourists and fabulous plans."

It is not impossible but that every nation of antiquity had a similar commencement; because, as history did not appear till hundreds of years after the facts related are said to have taken place, it follows that hearsay evidence is the best and only evidence that can be obtained.

Thus far I can with truth say, that, from a desire to combine correctness with intelligence, I have in no case given that on hearsay, which might be readily ascertained by ocular demonstration.

It was only another of the five hundred kindly hints which had been given him by well-disposed people; for well-disposed people never think that these vague pieces of information, very often acquired simply by hearsay, waste a man's time, by sending him off on false and useless scents.

How can I forsake that which I know and am familiar with, and have been used to from childhood, and love that which is unknown to me except by hearsay?

An account of an extraordinary occurrence given by an honest witness is, of course, generally preferable to a statement of the same occurrence merely obtained from hearsay; and the evidence of the witness deserves all the greater attention if he shows himself to be an intelligent and keen observer.

We cannot, however, consent to forget, that historical truth is very severe in its requisitions, and is not to be put off, by friend or foe, with hearsay testimony, or plausible surmises.

She had no experience, nor knowledge, even by hearsay, of what professional charges of this sort should be, for the two experts and the professor of geology whom she had engaged, in order to get independent opinion, had not yet rendered any account to her.

Only by hearsay was he acquainted with the habits and customs of the East, but he felt sure that honest Asiatics would not be found prowling about a palace in the midnight hours.

If the prosecuting witnesses relied upon documentary, circumstantial or hearsay evidence to convict, their testimony was at once rejected and the defendant was released.

Part v. professes to treat of the beginning, the growth and the perfection of the city; but of the first period the writer candidly confesses he knows nothing except by hearsay.

It is impossible to rebut hearsay, and as I have had no opportunity to consider the whole evidence, I will not offer an opinion on that now.

His end, according to a hearsay commemorated by Wood, was very unhappy, and was connected with the other person mentioned in our text.

Their testimonies were not so pregnant, and I fear much of it from hearsay, but swearing positively to some particulars, which drew suspicion upon their truth; nor did circumstances so agree, as to give either the bench or jury so entire satisfaction as was expected.

I myself have stood in the belfry and both seen and heard them do it, so the matter is not one of hearsay, but of actual experience.

And when, about this date or later, Lennox composed the long indictment against Mary, and quoted the letter already cited by Moray, it is hardly credible that he described the long poisonous document from mere hearsay, caught from Moray in the previous year.

The discoveries of modern navigators have unquestionably added to our menageries a vast variety of animals unknown to the ancients, or known only by hearsay, and esteemed apocryphal.