INSTINCT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Instinct

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/ˈɪnstɪŋkt/ Listen

noun

Instinct n.

Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished. "An instinct is a propensity prior to experience, and independent of instructions." "An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads." "An instinct is an agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowledge." "By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust Ensuing dangers."

(Zool.) Specif., the natural, unreasoning, impulse by which an animal is guided to the performance of any action, without thought of improvement in the method. "The resemblance between what originally was a habit, and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished."

A natural aptitude or knack; a predilection; as, an instinct for order; to be modest by instinct.

verb

Instinct v. t. To impress, as an animating power, or instinct. (Obs.)

adjective

Instinct adj. Urged or stimulated from within; naturally moved or impelled; imbued; animated; alive; quick; as, birds instinct with life. "The chariot of paternal deity... Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed By four cherubic shapes." "A noble performance, instinct with sound principle."

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Etymology of 'Instinct'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instinct" Quotes from Famous Books

... in the south-east above the trees at the end of the village green. It was in that ugly but well-beloved village on the south coast I discovered my love of Protestant England. It was on the downs that the instinct of Protestantism lit up ...

— Confessions of a Young Man • George Moore

... employ the previous trick as well, and maintain that your paradox is proved by the proposition which he has accepted. For this an extreme degree of impudence is required; but experience shows cases of it, and there are people who practise it by instinct. ...

— The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; The Art of Controversy • Arthur Schopenhauer

... Species just given, as he has done on p. 412 of his Darwinism, without betraying any sign that he has caught its driftlessness—for drift, other than a desire to hedge, it assuredly has not got. The battle now turns on the question whether modifications of either structure or instinct due to use or disuse are ever inherited, or whether they are not. Can the effects of habit be transmitted to progeny at all? We know that more usually they are not transmitted to any perceptible extent, but we believe ...

— The Humour of Homer and Other Essays • Samuel Butler

... for those who hear her," said Deronda. "Her singing is something quite exceptional, I think. She has had such first-rate teaching—or rather first-rate instinct with her teaching—that you might imagine her ...

— Daniel Deronda • George Eliot

... The same instinct which prompted Tom Steadman when he hit Libby Anne Cavers prompted him now. "I thought you said you wouldn't do such a thing since you joined the Church," he said, with an expression ...

— The Second Chance • Nellie L. McClung

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