insinuate
English
WOTD – 30 November 2007
Etymology
From Latin īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”), from in (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA(key): /ɪnˈsɪnjueɪt/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
insinuate (third-person singular simple present insinuates, present participle insinuating, simple past and past participle insinuated)
- To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:allude
- She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.
- 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, OCLC 1008120557; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, OCLC 52009618, Act II, scene iii:
- And wilt thou inſinuate what I am? and praiſe me? And ſay I am a Noble Fellow?
- 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter V, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], OCLC 84390265:
- And, moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses.
- 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, OCLC 1016551263:
- ‘You are quite wrong, my love, in your guess at my meaning. What I insinuated was, that my Georgiana’s little heart was growing conscious of a vacancy.’
- (rare) 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
- 1728-1729, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England
- (figurative, by extension) To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.
- 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242:
- 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.
- 1693, John Dryden, “[The Dedication]”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], OCLC 80026745:
- Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.
- 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, OCLC 937919305:
- He […] insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.
- 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 82790126:
- he insinuated himself into the confidence of one already so forlorn
- 1995, Terry Pratchett, Maskerade, p. 242
- Nanny didn't so much enter places as insinuate herself; she had unconsciously taken a natural talent for liking people and developed it into an occult science.
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Related terms
- insinuation
- insinuator
- sinuous
Translations
hint at (something)
|
creep or wind into, to enter gently
|
ingratiate oneself
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Further reading
- insinuate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- insinuate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
Anagrams
- annuities
Italian
Verb
insinuate
- inflection of insinuare:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Participle
insinuate f pl
- feminine plural of insinuato
Latin
Verb
īnsinuāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of īnsinuō