inspirit

present singular third person inspirits · participle present inspiriting · participle past inspirited · past inspirited

1. To strengthen or hearten; give impetus or vigour.

   The queer thought somehow inspirited him.

   1899, Stanley Waterloo, The Wolf’s Long Howl

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   Ah! must wee live, and see so sudden dead The Life that late our lives inspirited?

   c. 1615, Pierre Matthieu, “The Tropheis of the Vertues and Fortune of Henrie the Great”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Works of Du Bartas, London, c., published 1641, page 548

   And nothing could be better imagin’d than the reason, why the wounded Princes left their Tents; they were impatient to behold the Battel, anxious for its Success, and desirous to inspirit the Soldiers by their Presence.

   1718, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintot, Observations on the Fourteenth Book, Verse 30, page 129

   It was a fine arrangement for Henry Crawford, who was close to Fanny, and with his hands full of business, having two persons['] cards to manage as well as his own—for though it was impossible for Fanny not to feel herself mistress of the rules of the game in three minutes, he had yet to inspirit her play, sharpen her avarice, and harden her heart, […]

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 142

   The landlord had been so much pleased with Mr. Jinks’ patriotic ardor in the German cause, that he generously hinted at an entire obliteration of any little score chalked up against the name of Jinks for board and lodging at the hostelry; this was one of the circumstances which inspirited Mr. Jinks.

   1856, John Esten Cooke, chapter LXI, in The Last of the Foresters

   The "festival" […] this year has concerned itself largely with opera and dance, most of its pieces (perhaps in order to inspirit our AIDS-demoralized sexuality) inspired by the Don Juan motif.

   2003, Robert Brustein, “Three Years after ‘1984’”, in Reimagining American Theatre, part II, New York: Hill & Wang

2. To fill or imbue with spirit.

   Human beings, even fully mature adults, are neither detached rationalities nor mere collections of responses to environmental stimuli. They are inspirited, thinking bodies, and it is their bodies that launch the development of selves through a multitude of complex encounters.

   2002, Nel Noddings, Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy, part 2, Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, page 124

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   […] the Assurance we have of the Existence of Beings above our Sense, and of Thee, (the great Exemplar of thy Works) comes from Thee, the All-True, and Perfect, who hast thus communicated thy-self more immediately to us, so as in some manner to inhabit within our Souls; Thou who art Original Soul, diffusive, vital in all, inspiriting the Whole.

   1709, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, “The Moralists, a Philosophical Rhapsody”, in Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, volume II, London, published 1732, pages 369–370

   Synonyms: ensoul