Imbue

Quick meaning: Imbue is a verb meaning (transitive) To instill or inspire (someone) with a certain quality, feeling, or idea.

Meaning

(transitive) To instill or inspire (someone) with a certain quality, feeling, or idea.

More Meanings

1. (transitive) To wet or stain an object completely with some physical quality.
2. In general, to act in a way which results in an object becoming completely permeated or impregnated by some quality.

Example Sentences

The shirt was imbued with his scent.

The entire text is imbued with the sense of melancholy and hopelessness.

I might leave the answering of one part of the objection to physicians and chymists, who teach, that the antimonial glass and cup imbue wine and other liquors with a strong emetic quality, without any sensible loss of weight.

The patriarchal lives of my protectors caused these impressions to take a firm hold on my mind; perhaps, if my first introduction to humanity had been made by a young soldier, burning for glory and slaughter, I should have been imbued with different sensations.

Word Forms

• imbues
• imbuing
• imbued

Synonyms for imbue

Depending on context, synonyms include infuse, pervade, steep, suffuse, permeate, tinge.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include soak, saturate, permeate, tinge, hue, diffuse.

Related Dictionary Tools