INSPIRE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Inspire

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɪnspˈaɪr/ Listen

verb

Inspire v. t.

1.

To breathe into; to fill with the breath; to animate. "When Zephirus eek, with his sweete breath, Inspirèd hath in every holt and heath The tender crops." "Descend, ye Nine, descend and sing, The breathing instruments inspire."

2.

To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing. "He knew not his Maker, and him that inspired into him an active soul."

3.

To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale; opposed to expire. "Forced to inspire and expire the air with difficulty."

4.

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. "And generous stout courage did inspire." "But dawning day new comfort hath inspired."

5.

To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or supernatural influence; to fill with what animates, enlivens, or exalts; to communicate inspiration to; as, to inspire a child with sentiments of virtue; to inspire a person to do extraordinary feats. "Erato, thy poet's mind inspire, And fill his soul with thy celestial fire."

Inspire v. i. (past & past part. inspired; pres. part. inspiring)

1.

To draw in breath; to inhale air into the lungs; opposed to expire.

2.

To breathe; to blow gently. (Obs.) "And when the wind amongst them did inspire, They wavèd like a penon wide dispread."

See images of 'Inspire'

Etymology of 'Inspire'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Inspire" Quotes from Famous Books

... each ought to take to assure his subsistence by his labor, becomes pernicious as soon as it passes its limits and dominates the whole life. This is so true that it vitiates even the toil which gains our daily bread. I furnish paid labor; nothing could be better: but if to inspire me in this labor I have only the desire to get the pay, nothing could be worse. A man whose only motive for action is his wages, does a bad piece of work: what interests him is not the doing, it's the gold. If he can retrench in ...

— The Simple Life • Charles Wagner

... vulgar cosmopolitan beatitude can inspire an honest man. To abandon one's patriotism, and to despise a frontier or a flag, is, we are agreed, the negation of Europe. There are Frenchmen who forget their battles, and Englishmen to whom a gold ...

— Avril - Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance • H. Belloc

... I write to you to inform you of the hatred with which you inspire me. I wish you to understand that from the first day I saw you, your bearing, your face, your manners, your whole person, have been objects of distrust and aversion to me. I thought I recognized an ...

— Stories of Modern French Novels • Julian Hawthorne

... buried in restored peace, and hope, and happiness. With the most fervent thanks to providence that my terrors are removed, and that I have been tortured by only false apprehensions, I will try to banish from my mind all but the joy, and gratitude to heaven, that your safety and health inspire. Yet still, it is difficult to me to feel assured that all is well ! I have so long been the victim to fear and anguish, that my spirits cannot at once get back their equilibrium. . ...

— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... curiosity," said Ibarra. "I have thought much about it, and it seems to me better to try to carry out my father's ideas than to weep or to avenge his death. I wish to inspire myself with his spirit. That is ...

— An Eagle Flight - A Filipino Novel Adapted from Noli Me Tangere • Jose Rizal

Copyright © 2026 e-Free Translation.com