INSTILL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Instill

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/ɪnstˈɪl/ Listen

verb

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 'Instill'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instill" Quotes from Famous Books

... association has been quite definitely set forth in my "Historical Sketch"[1] and in my report for 1912. From these the following statement is very largely borrowed. The fundamental purpose of the Intercollegiate Peace Association is to instill into the minds and hearts of the young men of our colleges and universities the principle that the highest ideals of justice and righteousness should govern the conduct of men in all their international affairs quite as much as in purely individual and social matters, ...

— Prize Orations of the Intercollegiate Peace Association • Intercollegiate Peace Association

... experienced our only answer to the latter possibility. While providing man with everything to which he has aspired for milleniums, we instill in him, through the media of entertainment, knowledge of all the survival practices known to the backtimers who painfully nurtured civilization from an embryonic idea to its present pinnacle. We can ...

— DP • Arthur Dekker Savage

... not ask a man: "Would you like to do such-and-such a task?" when he has already made up his mind to assign him to a certain line of duty. Orders, hesitatingly given, are doubtfully received. But the right way to do it is to instill the idea of collaboration. There is something irresistably appealing about such an approach as: "I need your help. Here's ...

— The Armed Forces Officer - Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 • U. S. Department of Defense

... Edison is doing an enormous amount of work in steadily plodding away at the electric light business. He has solved the question as far as New York is concerned and as far as central station lighting is concerned; and all we want on this side is to instill more confidence into our capitalists, to try and induce them to unbutton their pockets and give us money to carry out ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 481, March 21, 1885 • Various

... differ'd from one another in Religion and Worship, in this they have all agreed. We were speaking, you know, of Cromwell's Army; do but recollect what you have heard and read of those Times, and you'll find, that the Notions and Sentiments, that were industriously instill'd into the minds of the soldiers, had a manifest tendency to obtain this end, and that all their preaching and praying were made serviceable to the same purpose. The Credenda, which the whole army, and ...

— An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War • Bernard Mandeville

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