Instincts definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (17)

American Heritage Dictionary (5)

noun An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli: the spawning instinct in salmon; altruistic instincts in social animals.
noun A powerful motivation or impulse.
noun An innate capability or aptitude: an instinct for tact and diplomacy.

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Century Dictionary (7)

Urged or animated from within; moved inwardly; infused or filled with some active principle: followed by with. Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound The chariot of paternal Deity, … Itself instinct with spirit. Milton, P. L., vi. 752. What betrays the inner essence of the man must be so grasped and rendered [by the painter] that all that meets the eye—look, attitude, action, expression—shall be instinct with meaning. J. Caird. The close buds, That lay along the boughs, instinct with life, … Feared not the piercing spirit of the North. Bryant, Winter Piece.
To impress as by an animating influence; communicate as an instinct. Unextinguishable beauty, … impressed and instincted through the whole. Bentley.
A special innate propensity, in any organized being, but more especially in the lower animals, producing effects which appear to be those of reason and knowledge, but which transcend the general intelligence or experience of the creature; the sagacity of brutes. Instinct is said to be blind—that is, either the end is not consciously recognized by the animal, or the connection of the means with the end is not understood. Instinct is also, in general, somewhat deficient in instant adaptability to extraordinary circumstances. The lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4, 299. Habit differs from instinct, not in its nature, but in its origin; the last being natural, the first acquired. Reid. It will be universally admitted that instincts are as important as corporeal structures for the welfare of each species under its present conditions of life. Under changed conditions of life it is at least possible that slight modifications of instinct might be profitable to a species; and if it can be shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations of instinct to any extent that was profitable. It is thus, as I believe, that all the most complex and wonderful instincts have originated. Darwin, Origin of Species (1869), p. 187. Instinct is purposive action without consciousness of the purpose. … The end to which a definite kind of instinctive action is subservient is not conceived once for all by a mind standing outside the individual like a providence, and the necessity to act conformably thereto externally thrust upon the individual as something foreign to him; but the end of the instinct is in each single case unconsciously willed and imagined by the individual, and the choice of means suitable to each special case unconsciously made. E. von Hartmann, Philosophy of the Unconscious, tr. by [Coupland, A. iii. Every animal that has well-developed eyes presents an instance of the adaptation of means to purpose by unconscious formative intelligence, which is quite as definite as that shown in any motor instinct, and far more delicate and subtle. Murphy, Habit and Intelligence, xxvii. All instincts probably arose in one or other of two ways. (1) By the effects of habit in successive generations, mental activities which were originally intelligent become, as it were, stereotyped into permanent instincts. … (2) The other mode of origin consists in natural selection, or survival of the fittest, continuously preserving actions which, although never intelligent, yet happen to have been of benefit. Romanes, Encyc. Brit., XIII. 157.

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But, true to form, when it comes to your family your instincts are a complete zero. — The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner
I fight against it, but my instincts are all wrong. — Flowers for the Judge - Margery Allingham - Campion 07 - 1937
Not physically, but my instincts were a dud battery. — The Great California Game—Lovejoy—Jonathan Gash
The trouble is that all my instincts are at war with my logical deductions. — SLEUTH’S ALCHEMY: Cases of Mrs. Bradley and Others - Gladys Mitchell
Although your instincts are admirable, you need to guard against depriving your own needs. — getreading - Reading Post - RSS feed

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instincts

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