speculative application

speculative application (plural speculative applications)

1. An application for a job with an employer who is not currently advertising any vacancies.
   • 2011, Stephen Ling, Graduate Job Search:

     When writing a speculative application, it is best to find out the name of the company's personnel manager.

   • 2013, Judith Leigh, How to Write: Successful CVs and Job Applications, page 110:

     Many people who got their job through a speculative application often say it was a case of their CV hitting the right desk at the right time.

   • 2019, Anastasia de Waal, The Job-Ready Guide: How to Set Yourself Up for Career Success:

     There are of course no guarantees when you send in a speculative application; however, it can be something worth doing if there is an organization you are especially keen to work for that doesn't have any advertised opportunities.

2. An application for something (such as a permit) that one does not yet know that one definitely needs or that one does not necessarily qualify to receive.
   • 2001, John Day River Proposed Management Plan, page 332:

     This speculative application by guides may result in more guided use being assigned than actually demanded. If launches are limited in the future, speculative application by guide services could displace non-commercial users.

   • 1895, William Chance, The Better Administration of the Poor Law, page 43:

     Relief committees are likely to administer relief in different ways and on different principles, and the knowledge of this encourages speculative applications from the poor.

   • 1981, Reinhart W. Wettmann, William R. Nicol, Deglomeration Policies in the European Community, page 89:

     However , there is one exception to this general rule; speculative applications ( i.e. made by developers where the tenant is not yet known ) are, with some exceptions, normally refused.

   • 2012, United States. Federal Communications Commission, FCC Record, page 15405:

     The history of the Auction 83 translator applications strongly supports our view that speculative applications delay the processing of bona fide applications, thereby impeding efforts to bring new service to the public.

3. An application or use for something that is not known to actually work.
   • 1974, John E. Harry, Industrial Lasers and Their Applications, page 96:

     Present, future, and speculative applications are summarized in table 5.1.

   • 1975, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration, The Energy Related Applications of Helium, page 44:

     Are there other speculative applications for helium which have the potential for pushing ultimate demand beyond even the highest projections in the report?

   • 1983, John Robert Flanagan, How to Prepare Patent Applications, page 11:

     The abstract should not refer to purported merits or speculative applications of the invention and should not compare the invention with the prior art.

• “speculative application” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “speculative application”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.