insinuate
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”), from in (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”)
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
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.
- She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.
- (rare) To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.
- Woodward
- The water easily insinuates itself into, and placidly distends, the vessels of vegetables.
- Woodward
- (figuratively, by extension) To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.
- 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.
- John Locke
- 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.
- Dryden
- Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.
- Clarendon
- He insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.
- 1995, Terry Pratchett, Maskerade, p. 242
Synonyms[edit]
- See also Thesaurus:allude
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
make way for by subtle means
creep or wind into
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enter gently or imperceptibly
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ingratiate oneself
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hint at (something)
Further reading[edit]
- 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[edit]
Italian[edit]
Verb[edit]
insinuate
- second-person plural present indicative of insinuare
- second-person plural imperative of insinuare
- feminine plural of insinuato
Latin[edit]
Verb[edit]
īnsinuāte
