INSTILL

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does instill mean? 

• INSTILL (verb)
  The verb INSTILL has 5 senses:

1. impart gradually

2. enter drop by drop

3. produce or try to produce a vivid impression of

4. teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

5. fill, as with a certain quality

  Familiarity information: INSTILL used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSTILL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they instill    ... he / she / it instills   
Past simple: instilled   
Past participle: instilled   
-ing form: instilling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Impart gradually

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

instill; transfuse

Context example:

transfuse love of music into the students

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

add; bestow; bring; contribute; impart; lend (bestow a quality on)

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

breathe (impart as if by breathing)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Enter drop by drop

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

instil; instill

Context example:

instill medication into my eye

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

enter; infix; insert; introduce (put or introduce into something)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

instillation (the introduction of a liquid (by pouring or injection) drop by drop)

instillation (a liquid that is instilled drop by drop)

instillator (medical apparatus that puts a liquid into a cavity drop by drop)

instillment (the introduction of a liquid (by pouring or injection) drop by drop)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Produce or try to produce a vivid impression of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

impress; ingrain; instill

Context example:

Mother tried to ingrain respect for our elders in us

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

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

instilling (teaching or impressing upon the mind by frequent instruction or repetition)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

inculcate; infuse; instill

Context example:

inculcate values into the young generation

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

drill (teach by repetition)

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

din (instill (into a person) by constant repetition)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

instilling (teaching or impressing upon the mind by frequent instruction or repetition)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Fill, as with a certain quality

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

impregnate; infuse; instill; tincture

Context example:

The heavy traffic tinctures the air with carbon monoxide

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

fill; fill up; make full (make full, also in a metaphorical sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

I feared early instilled prejudice: I wanted to have you safe before hazarding confidences.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The procedure of instilling saline or other fluids into the amniotic cavity using an intrauterine catheter.

(Amnioinfusion, NCI Thesaurus)

A test for patency of the lacrimal system; fluorescein instilled in the conjunctival sac can be recovered from the inferior nasal meatus.

(Jones Test, NCI Thesaurus)

I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It surprised me when I first discovered that such was his intention: I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife; but the longer I considered the position, education, &c., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I felt the truth of these words; and I drew from them the certain inference, that if I were so far to forget myself and all the teaching that had ever been instilled into me, as—under any pretext—with any justification—through any temptation—to become the successor of these poor girls, he would one day regard me with the same feeling which now in his mind desecrated their memory.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)