imbue
Americanverb (used with object)
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imbues,
present (3rd person singular)
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imbued,
past participle, past
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imbuing
present participle
verb
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to instil or inspire (with ideals, principles, etc)
his sermons were imbued with the spirit of the Reformation
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rare to soak, esp with moisture, dye, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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imbuesimple
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imbuessimple
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have imbuedperfect
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has imbuedperfect
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am imbuingprogressive
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are imbuingprogressive
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is imbuingprogressive
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have been imbuingperfect progressive
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has been imbuingperfect progressive
Past
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imbuedsimple
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had imbuedperfect
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was imbuingprogressive
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were imbuingprogressive
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had been imbuingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of imbue
First recorded in 1545–55, imbue is from the Latin word imbuere “to wet, drench”
Explanation
To imbue is to fill up with or become "soaked" in an idea or emotion, as a sponge takes in water. One visit to a sick relative in a hospital might be enough to imbue a child with a lifelong ambition to become a doctor. You can use imbue in a similar way as "saturate," or "soak through," to describe a filling or absorbing. A "hue" is a color, and it rhymes with imbue. When you're imbued with something, you are, in a way, colored by it. If you imbue a dish sponge with oily orange water from a spaghetti bowl, the color and the oil soak in. To fill people with qualities or emotions is, for example, to imbue them with strength or optimism.
Vocabulary lists containing imbue
Grade 11, List 5
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Death of a Salesman
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The Scarlet Letter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While eager to imbue him with reverential status, the Party is simultaneously wary that almost any discussion of Mao's legacy could rake up uncomfortable memories.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
"Artificial intelligence lacks feelings and memories; in short, it has no nafas... It can't imbue it into food."
From Barron's ● Nov. 30, 2025
Although his public persona was quite vivid—convivial, erudite but unpretentious, articulate, and unfailingly charming—he did not imbue his buildings with a distinctive graphic sensibility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
In recent years, however, the speakers have played pre-planned programming that ranges from outright opprobrium to more subtle messaging intended to imbue listeners with pro-South Korea sympathies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2025
Ernest’s genius, Seaborg perceived, was to draw into his orbit like-minded scientists in every field, not just physics, and imbue them with his own drive to build and perfect his magnificent invention.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
What’s more, the histrionic grandeur she imbues the scene with overshadows the dramatic revelation that follows: the reading of the Delphic oracle’s judgment that she is indeed innocent, and Leontes is “a jealous tyrant.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Great TV imbues its fiction with a soul, coaxing us to view fully crafted characters as beings of flesh and blood, or constructed unscripted scenarios as truth.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
I’m a person who creates characters, imbues them with problems and makes up situations for them to struggle through toward emotional epiphanies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026
Ms. O’Hara has the more richly written role, and she imbues Carmen with a gentle sense of yearning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
I get to paying him the same respect that he pays himself, and imbues his very clothes with, till everything he has on appears to look like him and respect itself accordingly.
From A Chance Acquaintance by William Dean Howells
"Human conversations are imbued with background assumptions that give meaning and relevance to the words being used," Denning explains.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
"Ilaiyaraaja's arrival was a watershed moment. It was an intervention by a person from an entirely different social and aesthetic background who had imbued a distinct aural soundscape," says TM Krishna, a celebrated Carnatic musician.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Along with the classics, the shop also offers bagels imbued with ingredients like saffron, Korean gochujang and miso.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Former Imagineer Nikkolas Smith, a self-described “artivist,” imbued his Legacy Tower in Downtown Disney with hidden meaning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
Yossarian was alone in a ponderous, primeval lull in which everything green looked black and everything else was imbued with the color of pus.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Rahele Jomepour Bell’s deft use of acrylic paint and soft pastels evokes a world of hazy tranquility, a palette of greens, golds and oranges imbuing each page with a palpable warmth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
For one thing, the display is shaped like a conventional mirror, imbuing it with the comfort of the familiar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
But rather than depict a childhood of adversity, her paintings empower the kids within them to claim their own space, imbuing her memories with strength and light.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
To its credit, Lee’s “Wedding Banquet” was adept at imbuing humanity into what could’ve easily been a very unserious comedy.
From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025
Rowan puts his hands on either side of her face and squeezes, imbuing her with an otherworldly gold light.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
