INSTIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does instil mean? 

• INSTIL (verb)
  The verb INSTIL has 1 sense:

1. enter drop by drop

  Familiarity information: INSTIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSTIL (verb)

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

Sense 1

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 "instil" is one way to...):

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

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

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

 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)