Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • preposition To the inside or interior of.
  • preposition To the activity or occupation of.
  • preposition To the condition, state, or form of.
  • preposition So as to be in or be included in.
  • preposition Informal Interested in or involved with.
  • preposition To a point within the limits of a period of time or extent of space.
  • preposition In the direction of; toward.
  • preposition Against.
  • preposition As a divisor of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In and to; to and in: implying motion: used to express any relation, as of presence, situation, inclusion, etc., that is expressed by in, accompanied by the idea of motion or direction inward. Compare in.
  • Of change of condition: after such verbs as pass, fall, grow, change, convert, transmute, etc. Into, as thus indicating change, may when used with an intransitive verb give it a transitive force: as, to talk a man into submission; to reason one's self into error.
  • In: not implying motion: as, he fought into the Revolution.
  • Unto; until. Compare intil.
  • Within, implying deficiency: as, the pole was long enough into a foot.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • preposition To the inside of; within. It is used in a variety of applications.
  • preposition Expressing entrance, or a passing from the outside of a thing to its interior parts; -- following verbs expressing motion
  • preposition Expressing penetration beyond the outside or surface, or access to the inside, or contents
  • preposition Indicating insertion.
  • preposition Denoting inclusion.
  • preposition Indicating the passing of a thing from one form, condition, or state to another

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • preposition Going inside (of)
  • preposition Going to a geographic region.
  • preposition Against, especially with force or violence.
  • preposition Producing, becoming
  • preposition Of (when describing duration)
  • preposition colloquial Intensely interested in or attracted to.
  • preposition mathematics Taking distinct arguments to distinct values.
  • preposition mathematics The operation of division, with the denominator expressed first.
  • preposition Investigation of a subject.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English intō, equivalent to in +‎ to.

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Examples

  • I was panting from the exertion, the call was really more a strained grunting series of messages as we all but ran down the slope……..into the gun smoke…possibly into Hell!

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Friday writing blog: point of view. 2009

  • They walk *into* the building they want to break into?

    For the Workflow Geeks ... Rogers 2008

  • But he sent Robert there often, into that beautiful summer afternoon when Hank Bauer had leaped so high from the green diamond -- and the ball had _smacked _into his leather glove -- and the crowds went wild!

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • It is generally due to an inflammation of the Fallopian tubes which closes up the openings of the tubes into the womb, so that no more ova can pass _from_ the ovaries _through_ the tubes _into_ the womb.

    Woman Her Sex and Love Life William J. Robinson

  • Although inrúpit means 'burst _into_,' the preposition is nevertheless required with the noun to express the place into which he burst.

    Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles A First Latin Reader John [Editor] Kirtland

  • Who knows not, that Satan may, and has oft _transformed_ himself _into an angel of light_; his ministers into the form of inspired apostles; and his influences, almost indiscernibly similar to those of the Spirit of Jesus Christ?

    The Divine Right of Church Government by Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

  • A little boy puts my thoughts into words when he exclaims, "How steady the ground is!" and becomes a still more faithful interpreter of a wave-worn voyager's sensations when, a couple of hours later, he demands permission to get _out_ of his delicious little white bed that he may have the pleasure of getting _into_ it again.

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 098, February, 1876 Various

  • Eating their way into the anti-entropy ... _into a state of matter which Russ and Greg had thought would resist all change_!

    Empire Clifford D. Simak 1946

  • The irrevocable wrong that must blot her life had been committed; she had brought sorrow into the lives of others, —into the lives that were knit up with hers by trust and love.

    XIV. Waking. Book VI—The Great Temptation 1917

  • Must this, and that fair flower of Freedom which, despite the jeers of latter-day striplings, sprung from our fathers’ blood, must that too degenerate into a dusty quest of gold, —into lawless lust with Hippomenes?

    V. Of the Wings of Atalanta. William Edward Burghardt 1903

Comments

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  • Multiplied by v. divided into.

    May 24, 2008