inspire
[in-spahyuh r]
- to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence: His courage inspired his followers.
- to produce or arouse (a feeling, thought, etc.): to inspire confidence in others.
- to fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought, etc.: to inspire a person with distrust.
- to influence or impel: Competition inspired her to greater efforts.
- to animate, as an influence, feeling, thought, or the like, does: They were inspired by a belief in a better future.
- to communicate or suggest by a divine or supernatural influence: writings inspired by God.
- to guide or control by divine influence.
- to prompt or instigate (utterances, acts, etc.) by influence, without avowal of responsibility.
- to give rise to, bring about, cause, etc.: a philosophy that inspired a revolution.
- to take (air, gases, etc.) into the lungs in breathing; inhale.
- Archaic.
- to infuse (breath, life, etc.) by breathing (usually followed by into).
- to breathe into or upon.
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- to give inspiration.
- to inhale.
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Origin of inspire
1300–50; Middle English inspiren < Latin inspīrāre to breathe upon or into, equivalent to in- in-2 + spīrāre to breathe
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for inspire
Contemporary Examples
There is, however, a separate wing of AQAP designed to inspire their followers to conduct attacks against the West.
But these were technical solutions and unlikely to inspire protests alone.
Sharpton Recalls Civil Rights Struggle in DC March Against Police ViolenceBen Jacobs
December 13, 2014
The 2014 election was a wipeout, progressives say, because Democrats lacked a bold economic message to inspire voters.
Miraculously, Malala survived, and her courage, wisdom, and optimism have continued to transfix and inspire the world.
I would like to inspire some people from Africa, and my country, to try and work hard and be a supermodel.
Historical Examples
Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers will inspire us or condemn us.
These hopes that we have helped to inspire, we can help to fulfill.
It is a spectacle that may inspire the philosopher no less than the artist.
The Story of the Malakand Field ForceSir Winston S. Churchill
But there was much in the career of the great Napoleon to inspire enthusiasm.
The Boy Life of NapoleonEugenie Foa
The recollection served to inspire me with a new desperate courage.
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
inspire
- to exert a stimulating or beneficial effect upon (a person); animate or invigorate
- (tr; foll by with or to; may take an infinitive) to arouse (with a particular emotion or to a particular action); stir
- (tr) to prompt or instigate; give rise toher beauty inspired his love
- (tr; often passive) to guide or arouse by divine influence or inspiration
- to take or draw (air, gas, etc) into the lungs; inhale
- (tr) archaic
- to breathe into or upon
- to breathe life into
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Word Origin
C14 (in the sense: to breathe upon, blow into): from Latin inspīrāre, from spīrāre to breathe
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for inspire
v.
mid-14c., enspiren, "to fill (the mind, heart, etc., with grace, etc.);" also "to prompt or induce (someone to do something)," from Old French enspirer (13c.), from Latin inspirare "inflame; blow into" (see inspiration), a loan-translation of Greek pnein in the Bible. General sense of "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" is from late 14c. Also sometimes used in literal sense in Middle English Related: Inspired; inspires; inspiring.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
inspire
(ĭn-spīr′)- To draw in breath; to inhale.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.