demur

Chiefly followed by to, and sometimes by at or on: to object or be reluctant; to balk, to take exception.

I demur to that statement.

The personnel demurred at the management’s new scheme.

To submit a demurrer (“motion by a party to a legal action for the immediate or summary judgment of the court on the question of whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the

He that demurreth in Law confeſſeth all ſuch matters of fact as are well and ſufficiently pleaded.

The plaintiff demurred, that is to say, admitted Sir Edward [Hales]'s plea to be true in fact, but denied that it was a sufficient answer.

To endure, to last.

To linger, to tarry.

The Eele is here, and in this hollow cave / You'll finde, if that our looks on it demurre, / A great wast in the bottome of his furre.

To remain, to stay.

An act of objecting or taking exception; a scruple; also, an exception taken or objection to something.

If publique Aſſemblies of Divines cannot agree upon a right vvay, private Conventicles of illeterate men, vvill ſoon finde a vvrong. Bivious demurres breed devious reſolutions. Paſſengers to heaven are in haſte, and vvill vvalk one vvay or other.

All my demurrs but double his attacks; / At laſt he vvhiſpers, "Do; and vve go ſnacks."

An act of continuing; a continuance.

[G]ood People, living vvithin the Limits of true and lavvful Matrimony, ſhall not by Malice or ill VVill, be ſo long detained and interrupted from their Right, as in times paſt they have been: Neither unjuſt Matrymony ſhall have his unjuſt and inceſtuous demoure and continuance, as by delayes to Rome it is vvont to have.

An act of lingering or tarrying.

[A]lbeit his Highneſs had cauſe, as the ſame vvrote, to marvel of your long demor, and lack of expedition of one or other of the things committed to your charge; yet did his Highneſs right vvell perſuade unto himſelf the default not to be in you, but in ſome other cauſe, […]

An act of remaining or staying; a residence, a stay.

VVe ſavv this tovvn only in tranſitu, but it merited a little demurr.

A state of having doubts; a hesitation, a pause.

The King told me, […] That I ſhould have the Character of Ambaſſador Extraordinary, and the ſame Allovvance I ſhou'd have had in Spain: Upon this Offer I made no Demurr, but immediately accepted it, and ſo my Ambaſſy vvas declar'd in May 1674.