Link Centre Dictionary

inspire

ins·pire

UK/ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ US/ɪnˈspaɪɹ/ fairly common

verb

1.

heighten or intensify

  • “These paintings exalt the imagination”
Synonyms
2.

supply the inspiration for

  • “The article about the artist inspired the exhibition of his recent work”
3.

serve as the inciting cause of

  • “She prompted me to call my relatives”
Synonyms
4.

urge on or encourage especially by shouts

  • “The crowd cheered the demonstrating strikers”
Synonyms
5.
6.

draw in (air)

  • “Inhale deeply”
  • “inhale the fresh mountain air”
  • “The patient has trouble inspiring”
  • “The lung cancer patient cannot inspire air very well”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • philatelically inspired

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.