Definition of "intimation"

intimation

/ˌɪntəˈmeɪʃən/

noun
plural intimations
1. The act of intimating.
2. The thing intimated.
3. Announcement; declaration.
  Quotations
  They made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a stork, should be banished.
  1603, Plutarch, translated by Philemon Holland, The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield
4. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference.
  Quotations
  Without mentioning the king of England, or giving the least intimation that he was sent by him.
  1679, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England
  At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it as much brighter.
  1862, Henry David Thoreau, Walking
  And actually I had important intimations to communicate as he faced the end. But intimations weren't much use.
  1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, page 378