English Dictionary

INSTIGATE

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does instigate mean? 

INSTIGATE (verb)
  The verb INSTIGATE has 2 senses:

1. provoke or stir upplay

2. serve as the inciting cause ofplay

  Familiarity information: INSTIGATE used as a verb is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


INSTIGATE (verb)

 Conjugation: 
Present simple: I / you / we / they instigate  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation ... he / she / it instigates  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past simple: instigated  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past participle: instigated  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
-ing form: instigating  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation


Sense 1

Meaning:

Provoke or stir up

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

incite; instigate; set off; stir up

Context example:

set off great unrest among the people

Hypernyms (to "instigate" is one way to...):

provoke; stimulate (provide the needed stimulus for)

Cause:

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "instigate"):

raise (activate or stir up)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

instigant (someone who deliberately foments trouble)

instigation (deliberate and intentional triggering (of trouble or discord))

instigative (arousing to action or rebellion)

instigator (someone who deliberately foments trouble)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Serve as the inciting cause of

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

inspire; instigate; prompt

Context example:

She prompted me to call my relatives

Hypernyms (to "instigate" is one way to...):

cause; get; have; induce; make; stimulate (cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They instigate him to write the letter

Derivation:

instigation (deliberate and intentional triggering (of trouble or discord))

instigation (the verbal act of urging on)

instigator (a person who initiates a course of action)


 Context examples 


By whom can he have been instigated?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The current study proposes that scratching the skin instigates mast-cell expansion in the intestine.

(Scratching the skin primes the gut for allergic reactions to food, mouse study suggests, National Institutes of Health)

After a slight repose, during which the spirits of the dead hovered round and instigated me to toil and revenge, I prepared for my journey.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Unjust!—unjust! said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was strictly enjoined, that the project of starving you by degrees should be kept a secret; but the sentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books; none dissenting, except Bolgolam the admiral, who, being a creature of the empress, was perpetually instigated by her majesty to insist upon your death, she having borne perpetual malice against you, on account of that infamous and illegal method you took to extinguish the fire in her apartment.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Sometimes, indeed, he left marks in writing on the barks of the trees or cut in stone that guided me and instigated my fury.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Heaven forbid! Even if you were really criminal, for that can only drive you to desperation, and not instigate you to virtue.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He paused, looking on me with wonder, and again turning towards the lifeless form of his creator, he seemed to forget my presence, and every feature and gesture seemed instigated by the wildest rage of some uncontrollable passion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"In the end, a man's motives are second to his accomplishments." (English proverb)

"All that glisters is not gold." (William Shakespeare)

"Not only can water float a craft, it can sink it also." (Chinese proverb)

"Think before you begin." (Dutch proverb)



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