Presumptive

By late May, he was already considered his party’s presumptive nominee.

Hovv delightfully vvould your time have been taken up vvith the appeals of ſcolding vvives, forſaken damſels and vvitches preſumptive!

It's a beautiful point of presumptive murder, and there's been nane like it in the Justiciar Court since the case of Luckie Smith the howdie, that suffered in the year saxteen hundred and seventy-nine.

Forgive me for being presumptive, but aren’t you and Mark engaged?

There being therefore tvvo opinions repugnant unto each other, it may not be preſumptive or skepticall in me to doubt of both, and becauſe vve remaine imperfect in the generall theory of Colours, vvee ſhall deliver at preſent a ſhort diſcovery of blacknes, vvherein although perhaps vve afford no greater ſatisfaction then others, yet ſhall our attempts exceed any; for vvee ſhall empirically and ſenſibly diſcourſe hereof, deducing the cauſes of Blackneſſe from ſuch originalls in Nature, as vve doe generally obſerve things are denigrated by Art: […]

The inſolence of your reply to me yeſterday, in the long-room, I might have overlooked, had not your preſumptive emulation in a much more intereſting affair, and a diſcovery vvhich I made this morning, concurred in perſuading me to chaſtiſe your audacity vvith my ſvvord.

The perſon in this ſituation [having a mere right of property without possession or the right of possession of the property] may have the true ultimate property of the lands in himſelf: but by the intervention of certain circumſtances, either by his ovvn negligence, the ſolemn act of his anceſtor, or the determination of a court of juſtice, the preſumptive evidence of that right is ſtrongly in favour of his antagoniſt; vvho has thereby obtained the abſolute right of poſſeſſion.

Though we had seen no land since leaving Calloa, Cape Horn was said to be somewhere to the West of us; and though there was no positive evidence of the fact, the weather encountered might be accounted pretty good presumptive proof.