Verb

(rare) To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.

* Woodward

The water easily insinuates itself into, and placidly distends, the vessels of vegetables.

(figurative, by extension) To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.

* 1995 , , p. 242

Nanny didn't so much enter places as insinuate herself; she had unconsciously taken a natural talent for liking people and developed it into an occult science.

* John Locke

All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.

* Dryden

Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.

* Clarendon

He insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.

To hint; to suggest tacitly while avoiding a direct statement.

She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.

Verb

(en verb)

To imply but stop short of saying explicitly.

* (John Locke)

Some ideas are suggested to the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 14, author=Angelique Chrisafis, work=Guardian

, title= Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism , passage=She was Nicolas Sarkozy's pin-up for diversity, the first Muslim woman with north African parents to hold a major French government post. But Rachida Dati has now turned on her own party elite with such ferocity that some have suggested she should be expelled from the president's ruling party.}}

To make one suppose; cause one to suppose (something).

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 24, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club

, title= Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3 , passage=In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author= Sarah Boseley

, volume=189, issue=10, page=15, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Children shun vegetables and fruit , passage=The [British Heart Foundation's] data […] suggests there has been little improvement in eating, drinking and exercise habits in spite of the concern about obesity and the launch of the government's child measurement programme, which warns parents if their children are overweight. About a third of under-16s across the UK are either overweight or obese.}}

To ask for without demanding.

To recommend.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

(obsolete) To seduce; to prompt to evil; to tempt.

* (William Shakespeare)

Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested .