Verb

(inspir)

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.

* Bible, Wisdom xv. 11

He knew not his Maker, and him that inspired into him an active soul.

* Shakespeare

Dawning day new comfort hath inspired .

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author=Anna Lena Phillips , title=Sneaky Silk Moths , volume=100, issue=2, page=172 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}

To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or supernatural influence; to fill with what animates, enlivens or exalts; to communicate inspiration to.

Elders should inspire children with sentiments of virtue.

* Dryden

Erato, thy poet's mind inspire , / And fill his soul with thy celestial fire.

To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale.

* Harvey

forced to inspire and expire the air with difficulty

To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing.

(archaic) To breathe into; to fill with the breath; to animate.

* Alexander Pope

Descend, ye Nine, descend and sing, / The breathing instruments inspire .

To spread rumour indirectly.

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.