instruct

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“
The chief end of the poet is to please; for his immediate reputation depends on it The great end of the poem is to instruct, which is performed by making pleasure the vehicle of that instruction; for poesy is an art, and all arts are made to profit.

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To provide with knowledge, especially in a methodical way. See Synonyms at teach.
  2. transitive verb To give orders to; direct.
  3. intransitive verb To serve as an instructor.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The National Day of Listening is an initiative created by the independent nonprofit project StoryCorps to encourage, instruct, and inspire everyday people to start a new holiday tradition: sit down with a loved one on the day after Thanksgiving, November 28, 2008, and record a meaningful conversation to preserve for years to come.
  • He was ready to counsel and instruct, as well as to receive information. —  James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography.
  • All these contain obscenity which is either inserted to amuse or to instruct, and the medical work now assailed deals with physiological points purely to instruct, and to increase the happiness of men and women If the pamphlet now prosecuted had been brought to me for publication, I should probably have declined to publish it, not because of the subject-matter, but because I do not like its style. —  Autobiographical Sketches
  • He also suggested mutual surveillance associations, in which the prisoners should watch over, instruct, and assist each other. —  The History of Tasmania , Volume II
  • You place yourself unreservedly in the hands of those appointed to instruct--and--ah--form you. —  The Purple Heights
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

holpen ·  pour ·  explain ·  vain-glory ·  exprest ·  reject ·  unguessed ·  frost-bitten ·  bo-e ·  pleasebe ·  nonmedical

Used in the same contextWord Family

instruct:   instructing ·  instructed ·  instructs
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 (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English instructen, from Latin īnstruere, īnstrūct-, to prepare, instruct : in-, on; see in-2 + struere, to build; see ster-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Latin instructus, past participle of instruere (later Italian instruire, istruire = Spanish Portuguese instruire = Provencal estruyre = French instruire), build; erect, construct, set in order, prepare, furnish, teach, instruct, from in, in, + struere, join together, pile up, build: see structure. Cf. construct, destruct.
  2. from Latin instructus, past participle of instruere, build, furnish, instruct: see instruct, v.
 

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/ɪnˈstrəkt/
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