Pronunciations (2)
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/ˈɪn.stɪŋkt/
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ˈɪn.stɪŋkt
Noun
A natural or inherent impulse or behaviour.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Many animals fear fire by instinct.
By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust / Ensuing dangers.
More examples (1)
In spite of these qualifications, the broad distinction between instinct and habit is undeniable. To take extreme cases, every animal at birth can take food by instinct, before it has had opportunity to learn; on the other hand, no one can ride a bicycle by instinct, though, after learning, the necessary movements become just as automatic as if they were instinctive.
An intuitive reaction not based on rational conscious thought.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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an instinct for order; to be modest by instinct
Debbie's instinct was to distrust John.
Adjective
Imbued, charged (with something).
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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The chariot of paternal deity […] / Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed / By four cherubic shapes.
a noble performance, instinct with sound principle
More examples (3)
Her eyes, whose colour I had not at first known, so dim were they with repressed tears, so shadowed with ceaseless dejection, now, lit by a ray of the sunshine that cheered her heart, revealed irids of bright hazel – irids large and full, screened with long lashes; and pupils instinct with fire.
It was a most Bedlamite catalogue of horrors, which, if true, made the wholesome moors a place instinct with tragedy.
This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.
Adjective
(followed by ‘with’) deeply filled or permeated
- Examples
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imbued with the spirit of the Reformation
words instinct with love
More examples (1)
it is replete with misery
Noun
inborn pattern of behavior often responsive to specific stimuli
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the spawning instinct in salmon
altruistic instincts in social animals