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Allude vs Instigate - What's the difference?

allude | instigate |

As verbs the difference between allude and instigate

is that allude is to refer to something indirectly or by suggestion while instigate is to goad or urge forward; to set on; to provoke; to incite.

allude

English

Verb

(allud)
  • To refer to something indirectly or by suggestion.
  • * 1597 , , Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity , Book V, Chapter xxix.3, 1841 ed., page 523:
  • These speeches . . . do seem to allude unto such ministerial garments as were then in use.
  • * 1846 , George Luxford, Edward Newman, The Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany: Volume 2, Part 2 , page 474
  • It was aptly said by Newton that "whatever is not deduced from facts must be regarded as hypothesis," but hypothesis appears to us a title too honourable for the crude guessings to which we allude .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}

    Synonyms

    * advert, hint, imply, indicate, insinuate, intimate, point, refer, signify, suggest

    Derived terms

    * allusive * allusion

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    instigate

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Verb

    (instigat)
  • To goad or urge forward; to set on; to provoke; to incite.
  • He hath only instigated his blackest agents to the very extent of their malignity. -Bp. Warburton.

    Usage notes

    Commonly used with reference to evil actions; as, to instigate one to a crime.

    Synonyms

    * (to goad or urge forward): animate, encourage, impel, incite, provoke, spur, stimulate, tempt, urge

    Antonyms

    * (to goad or urge forward): halt, prevent, stop

    Derived terms

    * instigation * instigator