instill

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The obvious mantra the IDF tries to instill -- "We're the most moral military in the world" -- also makes for a bad message.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To introduce by gradual, persistent efforts; implant: "Morality . . . may be instilled into their minds” (Thomas Jefferson).
  2. transitive verb To pour in (medicine, for example) drop by drop.

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Examples (48)

  • PohPs methods did, however, instill order and accuracy into the administration of the SS and resulted in the dismissal of any administrative official whom he found careless or unreliable. —  Commandant of Auschwitz
  • Then I realized that what I saw as a strict and somewhat gruff personage was in fact a man who loved the English language and literature and wanted to plant, instill, pass on that passion to his students. —  Knowledge is Power
  • Decisions to shut down the university and expel or suspend students to instill order are associated with dreaded Kanu disciplinary committee. —  The Standard | Headlines
  • The G.I. Bill, passed in 1944, helped instill this belief by giving returning World War II veterans unprecedented amounts of financial aid for college and spurring one of the most prosperous eras in the past century. —  AfterDowningStreet.org - Bush-Cheney Trials in '09
  • They instill false hope and quickly take investors 'money. —  US Market Commentary from Seeking Alpha
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English instillen, from Latin īnstīllāre : in-, into; see in-2 + stīllāre, to drip, drop (from stīlla, drop).
 

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/ɪnˈstɪl/
by American Heritage

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