inspire, v.
(ɪnˈspaɪə(r))
Forms: α. 4–7 enspire, 5 enspyr, 5–6 enspyre. β. 4 ynspyre, -ire, 4–7 inspyre, 6 Sc. inspyr, -ir, 5– inspire.
[a. OF. enspirer, inspirer (13th c.), espirer (12th c. in Littré), ad. L. inspīrāre to blow or breathe into, f. in- (in-2) + spīrāre to breathe.]
I. Literal (physical) senses.
1. trans. To breathe or blow upon or into. Obs. or arch.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 6 Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in euery holt and heeth The tendre croppes. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. viii. (MS. Cott. Aug. A. iv), And zephirus ful agreable and smoþe Þe tendre branchis enspireþ and doþe springe. 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Inspire, breath or blow into. 1649 [see inspired 1]. 1700 Dryden To D'chess Ormond 47 A soft Etesian gale But just inspir'd, and gently swell'd the sail. 1704 Pope Spring 11 Let my Muse her slender reed inspire. 1708 ― Ode St. Cecilia 2 Descend, ye Nine!..The breathing instruments inspire. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 353 He stands, and with swoln cheeks Inspires the News, his trumpet. |
† b. intr. To breathe or blow. Obs.
| 1513 Douglas æneis v. xi. 15 And, that scho [Juno] suld go spedely, The prosper wind gan eftir hir inspyre. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. iii. 30 When the wind emongst them [locks of hair] did inspyre. |
† 2. trans. To blow or breathe (air, etc.) upon or into. (In quot. 1536, To ‘breathe’, utter.) Obs.
| 1536 Primer Hen. VIII 145 His dulcetnes hath none enspired, All alone he is to be desired. 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 191 By pestilent diseases and maladies, which..inspireth infection into our bodies. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 30 An huge great payre of bellowes, which did styre Continually, and cooling breath inspyre. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. ii. Imposture 291 With th' air of these sweet words, the wily Snake A poysoned air inspired.. In Eve's frail brest. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 804 Assaying..if, inspiring venom, he might taint Th' animal Spirits that from pure blood arise. 1697 Dryden Eneid vii. 493 Unseen, unfelt, the fiery serpent skims Betwixt her linen and her naked limbs, His baneful breath inspiring as he glides. |
b. To breathe (life, a soul, etc.) in or into. (Cf. Gen. ii. 7.) In later use, fig.
| 1382 Wyclif Wisd. xv. 11 He kneȝ not [Him] that made hym, and that enspirede to hym a soule. 1592 Davies Immort. Soul iv. xxiv, In their Mother's Wombs..Doth in all Sons of Man their Souls inspire. 1611 Tourneur Ath. Trag. v. i. Wks. 1878 I. 137 Inspire new life Into their bodies. 1657 Lust's Domin. i. iii. in Hazl. Dodsley XIV. 105 Dry your wet eyes; for sorrow wanteth force T' inspire a breathing soul in a dead corse. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 785 Least that pure breath of Life, the Spirit of Man Which God inspir'd, cannot together perish With this corporeal Clod. 1860 Hawthorne Marb. Faun II. v. 53 Out of his bitter agony, a soul and intellect, I could almost say, have been inspired into him. |
† c. To produce by blowing or breathing. Obs.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 174 The southern wynd enspirith bettir wyn. |
3. trans. To breathe in, take into the lungs by breathing, inhale. (Opp. to expire 1.)
| 1528 [see inspiring vbl. n.]. 1666–72 Harvey Morb. Angl. (J.), By means of sulphurous coal smoaks the lungs are stifled and oppressed, whereby they are forced to inspire and expire the air with difficulty, in comparison of the facility of inspiring and expiring the air in the country. 1761 Descr. S. Carolina 19 The Air we walk in and inspire. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 279 It seems, according to him, forty-three cubic inches are always inspired at once. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) II. xii. 261 Animals, which inspire oxygen, and expire carbonic acid. |
b. intr. or absol. To draw in the breath.
| 1661 [see inspiring ppl. a. 1]. 1767 Gooch Treat. Wounds I. 351 The method..is, to make the patient inspire, as much as he possibly can. 1861 F. H. Ramadge Curab. Consumpt. 36 When the patient inspired, a slight protrusion took place where the wound had been. 1894 Times 5 Mar. 14/4 A man who hunched up his shoulders every time he inspired. |
II. Figurative senses.
4. trans. To infuse some thought or feeling into (a person, etc.), as if by breathing; to animate or actuate by some mental or spiritual influence. a. spec. (Theol., etc.) Said of God or the Holy Spirit, or of a divinity or supernatural being: To influence or actuate by special divine or supernatural agency; used esp. in reference to the prophets, apostles, and Scripture writers: cf. inspiration 3 a.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxlvii. 7 Alsone as his gaste enspiris þaire hert. 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 678 Gif that he enspirit war Of him, that all thing euirmar Seis in his presciens. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 189 In þe cop þerof is the temple of Delphicus Apollo; and in þe wyndynge of þe myddel playn is a pitte, oute of þat pitte philosofres were enspired. 1435 Misyn Fire Love 9 If paraunter goddis grace to þat þame wald enspyr. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 897 As god inspired hir forth sho went. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 498/1 As that holi spirite enspired mo then them that wrote, so enspired he the writers in mo thinges then they wrote. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iv. i. 67. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxix. 169 Such private men as pretend to be supernaturally Inspired. 1718 Watts Ps., ‘O Thou that hear'st’ viii, O may thy Love inspire my Tongue. 1876 J. Parker Paracl. i. iii. 20 Few, indeed, may have been inspired to speak the word, but all have been inspired to feel it. 1884 Nonconf. & Indep. 7 Feb. 131/2 The Church has decided that writers are inspired who if inspired, have been inspired to suggest to all ordinary judgments that they are not inspired. |
b. gen. To influence, animate, or actuate (a person) with a feeling, idea, impulse, etc.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 75 My fader, but I were enspired Through love of you. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxvi. 93 Experience dois me so inspyre, Of this fals failȝeand warld I tyre. 1530 Tindale Expos. (Parker Soc.) 319 He inspired the king that the queen was not his wife. 1638 F. Junius Paint. of Ancients Ded. A iij, Feeling my selfe inspired with courage by the signification of your noble desire..I stoutly fell to my taske. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §113 Three of the commissioners..were all inspired by the Scots, and liked well all that they pretended to desire. 1709 Berkeley Th. Vision Ded., The chief motives that inspire me with the respect I bear you. 1844 Thirlwall Greece VIII. 445 That the Romans..only sought to inspire them with a wholesome terror. 1881 Jowett Thucyd. I. 198 Poverty inspires necessity with daring. |
c. Said of the feeling, influence, etc.
(In quot. 1725, the sense is akin to 2 b.)
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 243 As holyness and honeste out of holy churche Spryngeþ and spredeþ and enspireþ þe peuple. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 229 What zeale, what furie, hath inspir'd thee now? 1725 Pope Odyss. iii. 451 Long as life this mortal shall inspire. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam vi. ix, Deliberate will Inspired our growing troop. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola lii, She felt it good to be inspired..by the belief in a heroism struggling for divine ends. |
5. To ‘breathe in’ or infuse (a feeling, thought, principle, etc.) into the mind or soul. Const. † to (obs.), in, into. a. spec. Of a divine or supernatural being: To impart, communicate, or suggest by special divine or supernatural agency; used esp. in reference to the utterances of prophets and apostles, and the writings of Scripture: cf. inspiration 3 a, inspired 4.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Tim. iii. 16 Al scripture of God ynspyrid is profitable to teche, to arguwe..to reproue, for to lerne in riȝtwysnesse. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 99 b, It is to suppose that all y⊇ rules of religion were inspired to the holy sayntes & fathers by the holy goost. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 52 The Poet..calleth the sweete Muses to inspire into him a good inuention. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xiv. §6. (1622) 360 Yet hath not that spirit the light of vnderstanding, vnlesse the Father of Lights inspire the same into him. 1889 Ruskin Præterita III. iv. 163 Melodies which have been, not invented, but inspired to all nations in the days of their loyalty to God, to their prince, and to themselves. |
b. gen. To infuse (something) into the mind; to kindle, arouse, awaken in the mind or heart (a feeling, idea, impulse, purpose, etc.).
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 50 [Which] inspireth into their stomaches such yll beseeming manners. 1683 Apol. Prot. France ii. 17 They who inspire into the King such strange Acts. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 10 Mar., Fatima has..an air that inspires, at once, respect and tenderness. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlii. (1869) II. 580 He inspired terror to the enemy and a just confidence to the troops. 1855 Prescott Philip II, I. i. vii. 90 He endeavoured to inspire a confidence in others which he was far from feeling himself. 1884 Manch. Exam. 26 May 4/7 The course..is calculated to strengthen..the distrust which their erratic career tends to inspire. |
6. absol. (from 4 or 5).
| a 1400 Gast of Gy (Rawl. MS. Poet. 175 If. 107 b/2), Þe spirit enspires whare it will. 1450–1530 Myrr. our Ladye 173 Mater inspirantis, Mother of hym that enspyreth. 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. xxiii, I onely exhortynge, and the good spirite inspyringe. 1873 Holland A. Bonnic. i. 21 Perfectly self-possessed..commanding, advising, reassuring, inspiring, he was evidently there to do good. |
7. transf. (from 4 and 5: cf. 1647 in 4 b). trans. To suggest or prompt the utterance of particular views or information on some public matter, or to prompt a speaker or writer to such utterance. (See also inspired 5.)
| 1883 Manch. Exam. 29 Oct. 5/2 The abortive pronunciamentos which are supposed to have been inspired by the agents of Senor Zorilla's Republican propaganda. |