stirring
Americanadjective
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rousing, exciting, or thrilling.
a stirring speech.
-
moving, active, bustling, or lively.
a stirring business.
noun
-
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
-
exciting the emotions; stimulating
-
active, lively, or busy
Other Word Forms
- stirringly adverb
- unstirring adjective
Etymology
Origin of stirring
before 900; Middle English stiringe, Old English styriende. See stir 1, -ing 2
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.
These films break through a dense documentary market with their stirring portraits of wars, political leaders, activists, artists, musicians, movements, and occasionally, regular people like you and me.
From Salon • Mar. 14, 2026
As a result, wrinkle structures are uncommon in rocks younger than about 540 million years old, when animal life rapidly diversified and began actively stirring ocean sediments.
From Science Daily • Mar. 8, 2026
The line, he recalled, instantly transported him back to his childhood in Cardiff, stirring "all of those feelings of not being Welsh, of being different. It struck a nerve... it was really raw".
From BBC • Mar. 2, 2026
Jamie Hewlett sits at a wooden table stirring a cappucino with a black straw.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026
Mard was stirring a bubbling pot of sludge with one hand, the other hand full of wriggling worms.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
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.
