INSTIL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Instil

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verb

instil v. t. Same as instill.

Synonyms: instill.

Instill v. t. (past & past part. instilled; pres. part. instilling) (Written also instil)

To drop in; to pour in drop by drop. "That starlight dews All silently their tears of love instill."

Specifically: To infuse (knowledge or attitudes) into the mind of another, slowly or gradually; to impart gradually; to cause to be imbibed. "How hast thou instilled Thy malice into thousands."

Synonyms: To infuse; impart; inspire; implant; inculcate; insinuate.

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Etymology of 'Instil'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instil" Quotes from Famous Books

... effect upon my mind. As I grew up, the obsolete exuviae of doctrine dropped off my mind like dead leaves from a tree. They could not get any vital hold in an atmosphere of tolerable enlightenment. Why should we fear the attempt to instil these fragments of decayed formulae into the minds of children of tender age? Might we not be certain that they would vanish of themselves? They are superfluous, no doubt, but too futile to be of any lasting importance. I remember that, when the first Education Act was being discussed, ...

— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen

... made abbot of a monastery, and endeavoured to instil temperance into the monks, but at length gave up the attempt in despair and settled in a cave at the mouth of the Severn. Then one night "a tall man" appeared to him in a vision, and bade him go to Armorica, saying to him—so the legend goes: "Thou goest by the sea, and where thou wilt disembark ...

— Legends & Romances of Brittany • Lewis Spence

... money. (It was L3,000.) His mother, and those to whose care he was committed, were watchful to improve his knowledge, and to that end appointed him tutors both in the mathematics, and in all the other liberal sciences, to attend him. But, with these arts, they were advised to instil into him particular principles of the Romish Church; of which those tutors professed, though secretly, themselves ...

— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne

... reason that modern people do not read these great authors is that they are not encouraged to do so. The very best way to instil a love of Thackeray into the modern world is to make the modern world read just so much of him that its voracious appetite is ...

— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Patrick Braybrooke

... he began to instil a spirit of discontent within the lad, asking him if he knew how much wealth his father Sigmund had and who ...

— Told by the Northmen: - Stories from the Eddas and Sagas • E. M. [Ethel Mary] Wilmot-Buxton

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