[General] To infuse; instill = impart; inspire; implant; inculcate; insinuate.

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me a leg up with the interpretation of the expression in bold in the following sentences?

The knowledge of God, which is instilled as a gift, compels or constrains one to depart from evil. In other words, it leads one to keep the commandments of God.

instill = implant;

How hast thou instilled thy malice into thousands.

instill = to infuse (knowledge or attitudes) into the mind of another, slowly or gradually; to impart gradually; to cause to be imbibed

That starlight dews all silently their tears of love instill.

instill = to drop in; to pour in drop by drop

Thanks for your efforts.

Regards,

V.

 

[Tdol]

:up:

 

[bertietheblue]

From Modern Guide to Synoyms and Related Words by S.I. Hayakawa (Funk & Wagnalls, 1968):

"[Unlike implant, inseminate, infuse and ingrain, instill is] restricted to the context of learning. Instill suggests a slow, subtle, possibly gentle transfer of attitude more than facts, one that reflects its derivation from a word meaning to put in by drops. Most often, instill suggests a conscious imparting to someone who is, at most, only partially aware of the process:

'striving to instill in his son a hatred for his father';
'understanding how carefully his psychiatrist worked to instill in him an attitude of perfect trust';
'seeing how blindly everything in his environment had worked to instill within him a rage agaisnt the established order';
'nations that, without even realizing it, instill in their citizens an unexamined fear of outsiders'.

Instill is the only one of these words, furthermore, that can possibly suggest the development of an attitude within oneself:

'a historian who has not instilled in himself a proper objectivity toward a period he is treating'."