Intimation \In`ti*ma"tion\, n. [L. intimatio: cf. F.
   intimation.]
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   1. The act of intimating; also, the thing intimated.
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   2. Announcement; declaration. --Macaulay.
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            They made an edict with an intimation that whosoever
            killed a stork, should be banished.   --Holland.
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   3. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a
      remote or ambiguous reference; as, he had given only
      intimations of his design.
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            Without mentioning the king of England, or giving
            the least intimation that he was sent by him. --Bp.
                                                  Burnet.
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	intimation
    n 1: an indirect suggestion; "not a breath of scandal ever
         touched her" [syn: hint, intimation, breath]
    2: a slight suggestion or vague understanding; "he had no
       inkling what was about to happen" [syn: inkling,
       intimation, glimmering, glimmer]

	

	117 Moby Thesaurus words for "intimation":
   allegory, allusion, arcane meaning, assumption, bare suggestion,
   breath, broad hint, cast, catchword, clue, coloration, connotation,
   cue, cue word, dash, evidence, feeling, foreboding, forefeeling,
   funny feeling, gentle hint, gesture, gleam, glimmer, glimmering,
   half an idea, hazy idea, hint, hot lead, hunch, idea, implication,
   implied meaning, import, impression, index, indication, inference,
   infusion, inkling, innuendo, insinuation, intuition,
   intuitive impression, ironic suggestion, key, key word, kick, lead,
   lick, look, meaning, mere notion, metaphorical sense, nod, notion,
   nuance, nudge, occult meaning, overtone, preapprehension,
   premonition, presentiment, presumption, presupposition, prompt,
   sauce, scent, scintilla, seasoning, shade, shadow, sign, signal,
   sip, smack, smattering, smell, sneaking suspicion, soupcon, spark,
   spice, spoor, sprinkling, strain, streak, subsense,
   subsidiary sense, suggestion, sup, supposition, suspicion,
   symbolism, symptom, taint, taste, telltale, tempering, thought,
   tinct, tincture, tinge, tint, tip-off, touch, trace, track,
   undercurrent, undermeaning, undertone, vague feeling, vague idea,
   vestige, whiff, whisper, wind, wink

	

	INTIMATION, civil law. The name of any judicial act by which a notice of a 
legal proceeding. is given to some one; but it is more usually understood to 
mean the notice or summons which an appellant causes to be given to the 
opposite party, that the sentence will be reviewed by the superior judge. 
     2. In the Scotch law, it is an instrument, of writing, made under the 
hand of a notary, and notified to a party, to inform him of a right which a 
third person had acquired; for example, when a creditor assigns a claim 
against his debtor, the assignee or cedent must give an intimation of this 
to the debtor, who, till then, is justified in making payment to the 
original creditor. Kames' Eq. B. 1, p. 1, s. 1.