second-guess
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To evaluate or criticize (someone or something) with the benefit of hindsight: To use knowledge of how an event turned out to judge the decisions or actions taken before that outcome was known.
- To anticipate or predict (what someone will do or think): To try to guess someone's intentions, actions, or thoughts in advance, often in an attempt to outmaneuver them.
Usage Examples
- Verb (criticize with hindsight):
- It's easy to second-guess the coach's strategy after the team loses.
- Don't second-guess my decision; you weren't in my position at the time.
- Verb (anticipate or predict):
- A good poker player tries to second-guess their opponents' next move.
- The marketing team is trying to second-guess how consumers will react to the new design.
Advanced Usage
- The term often carries a negative connotation when used to mean criticizing with hindsight, implying the criticism is unfair because the critic now knows information that was not available to the original decision-maker.
- It can describe a state of indecision: "He second-guessed himself constantly, which paralyzed his ability to act."
Variants and Related Words
- Second-guesser (noun): A person who habitually criticizes decisions after the fact.
- The manager was tired of listening to the second-guessers in the meeting.
Synonyms
- Criticize with hindsight: Hindsight criticism, Monday-morning quarterback.
- Anticipate: Predict, foresee, outguess.
Related Phrases
- Monday-morning quarterbacking (idiom, primarily US): This idiom is a close synonym for the "criticize with hindsight" meaning of second-guess. It refers to criticizing past decisions after seeing the results, like a fan criticizing a football coach's plays on Monday after the Sunday game.
- All this Monday-morning quarterbacking isn't helpful; we need to focus on the next project.
Verb
- evaluate or criticize with hindsight
- attempt to anticipate or predict