different between intend vs insinuate

English

Etymology

From Middle English intenden, entenden (“direct (one’s) attention towards”), borrowed from Old French entendre, from Latin intendo, intendere. See also intensive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

intend (third-person singular simple present intends, present participle intending, simple past and past participle intended)

1. (transitive, intransitive, usually followed by the particle "to") To hope; to wish (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon

   Synonyms: mean, design, plan, purpose

2. To fix the mind on; attend to; take care of; superintend; regard.
3. (obsolete) To stretch to extend; distend.
4. To strain; make tense.
5. (obsolete) To intensify; strengthen.
   • , Bk.I, New York, 2001, p.139:

     Dotage, fatuity, or folly […] is for the most part intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than others […].

6. To apply with energy.
7. To bend or turn; direct, as one’s course or journey.
8. To design mechanically or artistically; fashion; mold.
9. To pretend; counterfeit; simulate.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• mean, mint (UK dialect), foremind (obsolete)

Related terms

• intense
• intensive
• intent
• intention
• intension

Translations

Anagrams

• Dinnet, dentin, indent, tinned

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?