- present participle of stir.
stirring
Americanadjective
-
rousing, exciting, or thrilling.
a stirring speech.
-
moving, active, bustling, or lively.
a stirring business.
noun
-
stirrings
plural
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a mental impulse, sensation, or feeling.
stirrings of hope.
-
a small movement.
the best thing she could do was to pretend that her husband's nocturnal stirrings didn't wake her
adjective
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exciting the emotions; stimulating
-
active, lively, or busy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of stirring
before 900; Middle English stiringe, Old English styriende. See stir 1, -ing 2
Explanation
Something that's stirring is gripping or moving—it inspires some kind of powerful emotion, like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. When people sing stirring songs at church, during a protest march, or around the piano at home, they might make you cry, while a stirring public speaker often makes the crowd feel enthusiastic and roused to action. In the 15th century, this adjective had a much more literal meaning: "in active motion, or animated." The verb stir, "move, rouse, or agitate," shares a root with storm.
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:
These protest-laden times couldn’t be more receptive to the stirring “Everybody to Kenmure Street,” which speaks to a moment when the machinery of institutional cruelty was ground to a halt by righteous neighborliness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
By heating, stirring, and disrupting gas throughout the CGM, black hole jets can make it harder for that material to cool and fall back toward the galaxy.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Still, the scenes kindled a sense of something rare stirring: hope.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Painful, for sure, but a prelude to a stirring second half from the striker and his new-old team-mates.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Some women were already asleep after the long workday, but most were stirring about, some waiting for a turn at the toilets, others picking lice off themselves and their neighbors.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Celtic took care of Rangers on Sunday to set up the grandest finale, a round of fixtures on Wednesday and then the last stirrings on Saturday.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
There are some stirrings in the public discourse that suggests the existence of a deep, untapped well of anger at the hyper-rich.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2026
And everywhere the ambient stirrings of the 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen mega-audio with integrated noise canceling, featuring a “Quiet mode” that allows adults in front to talk without waking the kids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025
Being around family — especially the teens — gave Donaldson the initial stirrings for the script she would write.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024
Faint stirrings and distant sounds came to her from deep inside the belly of the Palace.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
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.
