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insinuate

verb
/ɪnˈsɪnjueɪt/UK

Etymology

First attested in 1529; Borrowed from Latin īnsinuātus, perfect passive participle of īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”) -ō (verb-forming suffix). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

  1. borrowed from īnsinuātus

Definitions

  1. To hint

    To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.

    • She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.
    • And wilt thou inſinuate what I am? and praiſe me? And ſay I am a Noble Fellow?
    • And, moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses.

  2. To creep, wind, or flow into

    To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.

    • 1728-1729, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England Water will insinuate itself into Flints through certain imperceptible Cracks
    • Some speakers allow the sound of r to insinuate itself between the a and s of wash

  3. To ingratiate

    To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.

    • All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.
    • Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.
    • He[…] insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Insinuated.

      • The great mistery of Christes passyon […] lyttle and lyttle at sundry seasons to bee sygnifyed and insinuate conueniently to man.

The neighborhood

Derived

insinuatingly, insinuatingness, insinuative, insinuatory, uninsinuated

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at insinuate. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01insinuate02slowly03slow04intellectual05understanding06infer07imply

A definitional loop anchored at insinuate. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at insinuate

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA