insinew

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From in- +‎ sinew.

Verb[edit]

insinew (third-person singular simple present insinews, present participle insinewing, simple past and past participle insinewed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To strengthen with, or as if with, sinews; to innerve; to invigorate.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, []”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 90:
      All members of our Cauſe, both here, and hence, / That are inſinewed to this Action.
    • 1824, T[homas] Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard, “The Land beneath the Sea”, in Welsh Minstrelsy: Containing The Land beneath the Sea; or, Cantrev Y Gwaelod, A Poem, in three Cantos [], John and H. L. Hunt, Canto II, page 80:
      Oh ye floods! oh ye floods! of the ever-rolling deep, / The breath of God insinews ye, and awful is your sweep, []
    • 1869 July 1, “Remember Solferino”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia: William W. Harding, page 4:
      The treacherous peace which followed it gave to Prussia a theatre for military achievement, an opportunity and an ally; [] strengthened her in in territory, population and wealth, and insinewed her for the future with the prestige and preparation needful for a great military State.

Further reading[edit]