different between insinuate vs insinuation

English

Etymology

From Latin ?nsinu? (“to push in, creep in, steal in”), from in (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /?n?s?njue?t/

Verb

insinuate (third-person singular simple present insinuates, present participle insinuating, simple past and past participle insinuated)

1. To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.

   She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.

2. (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

3. (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.

   • 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.

   • Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.

   • He […] insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.

   • he insinuated himself into the confidence of one already so forlorn

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:allude

Related terms

• insinuation
• insinuator
• sinuous

Translations

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

1. second-person plural present indicative of insinuare
2. second-person plural imperative of insinuare
3. feminine plural of insinuato

Latin

Verb

?nsinu?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of ?nsinu?

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French insinuation, from Old French, from Latin insinuatio, from ?nsinu? (“to push in, creep in, steal in”), from in (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?s?nju?e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

insinuation (countable and uncountable, plural insinuations)

1. The act or process of insinuating; a creeping, winding, or flowing in.
2. The act of gaining favor, affection, or influence, by gentle or artful means; — formerly used in a good sense, as of friendly influence or interposition.
3. The art or power of gaining good will by a prepossessing manner.
4. That which is insinuated; a hint; a suggestion, innuendo or intimation by distant allusion
   • slander may be conveyed by insinuations.

Related terms

• insinuate
• insinuator

Translations

Further reading

• insinuation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• insinuation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin ?nsinu?ti?, ?nsinu?ti?nem.

Pronunciation

Noun

insinuation f (plural insinuations)

1. insinuation

Related terms

• insinuer

Further reading

• “insinuation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).