theorize

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theorize about (someone or something)

To speculate, conjecture, or make guesses about someone or something. Everyone has been theorizing about what the company's next product might be. If I'm going into business with someone, I don't want to have to speculate about them, their past, or their motivations—I want concrete facts.
See also: theorize

theorize on (something)

To speculate, conjecture, or form a hypothesis about something, especially in manner that is abstract or without supporting evidence. These analysts who spend so much time theorizing on the effects of these economic changes will have on the working class have no idea what it's like to actually live through them. We've theorized on several different methods of enhancing cellular regeneration, but it will be many years before technology will prove whether or not they could be viable.
See also: on, theorize
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

theorize about someone or something

to hypothesize about someone or something; to conjecture about someone or something. Let's not waste time theorizing about Ted. He won't change. I can only theorize about what happened.
See also: theorize

theorize on something

to make a theory about something. There is no point in theorizing on something when you have all the empirical evidence you need to draw a conclusion. He spent the afternoon theorizing on the origin of the universe.
See also: on, theorize
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Section I describes the derivation and nature of incompletely theorized agreements and the role of analogical reasoning.
This, in turn, may lead to even broader theorization rather than the minimalism sought in employing incompletely theorized agreements.
Incompletely theorized agreements: an unworkable theory of judicial modesty
They should emphasize this by significant local research in a thoroughly theorized way, so that the two tasks of aiding development directly and elaborating development theory, fully inform each other.
Development tasks for Arab Gulf universities
In the latter stage of his career, as portrayed in this part of the exhibit, Freud theorized that societies devise measures to rein in human instincts and control behavior.
Wars inevitably erupted out of underlying psychological conflicts in societies, Freud theorized. His personal experiences did not lend themselves to optimism about world peace.
Dr. Freud Goes to Washington
Researchers have theorized that it demands more of a social thinker to consider the situational influences on another's behavior than simply to assume that behavior reflects an internal attitude.
My culture, my self
Bowlby theorized that the human species has made a heavy evolutionary investment in mutual bonds.
They theorized that times of relative safety and abundance produce warm parental care.
The ties that bond: adult romantic and sexual styles may grow out of parent-child affiliations
Scientists theorized that Mathilde might have been slowed by the gravity of a moon a few km in diameter, but NEAR found no such companion.
Waltzing past Mathilde
They also theorized that a prion, which has no genetic material, replicates by twisting normal PrP into its own image.
Mad cow disease diagnosed in humans
The researchers figured that stable plaque, possessing no inflamed cells, would be cooler than plaque with inflammatory deposits, and they theorized that this distinction might offer a way to identify the most harmful plaque.
Beware of hot spots in arteries
The researchers theorized that as people age, their secretion of growth hormone plummets, leaving them flabby and frail.
Growth hormone: no elixir for old age?
Falling birth rates and shrinking family sizes in successive social classes reflected the spread of new ideas about motherhood, such as the desirability of raising successful students rather than lots of kids, the Stanford scientists theorized.
Ultrasocial Darwinism: cultural groups may call the evolutionary shots in modern societies
Fuchs' group theorized that the BPAG1 gene yields a slightly different protein when expressed in the brain rather than the skin.
Unexplored role for skin gene in brain
Some researchers have theorized that low cholesterol creates a suicide risk by slowing the transmission of serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain.
Low cholesterol linked to suicide tries
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