inspire
Verb
Verb Forms: inspired, inspiring, inspires
- To fill someone with the urge or ability to do something.
- heighten or intensify
- supply the inspiration for
- "The article about the artist inspired the exhibition of his recent work"
- serve as the inciting cause of
- spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
- fill with revolutionary ideas
- draw in (air)
- "The lung cancer patient cannot inspire air very well"
- To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by inspiration.
- To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or supernatural influence; to fill with what animates, enlivens or exalts; to communicate inspiration to.
- To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale.
- To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing.
- To breathe into; to fill with the breath; to animate.
- To spread rumour indirectly.
Examples
- Elders should inspire children with sentiments of virtue.
- The captain's speech was aimed to inspire her team to victory in the final.
- Watching a master Scrabble player can INSPIRE new strategies in your own game.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English inspiren, enspiren, from Old French inspirer, variant of espirer, from Latin īnspīrāre (“inspire”), itself a loan-translation of Biblical Ancient Greek πνέω (pnéō, “breathe”), from in + spīrō (“breathe”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peys- (“to blow, breathe”). Displaced native Old English onbryrdan (literally “to prick in”).
Synonyms
animate, barrack, breathe in, cheer, enliven, exalt, exhort, inhale, instigate, invigorate, pep up, prompt, revolutionise, revolutionize, root on, urge, urge on, beghast
Scrabble Score: 9
inspire: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordinspire: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
inspire: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary