Instills

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To introduce or implant positive qualities, values, or feelings
2. To gradually establish or imbue someone with an attitude or mindset
3. To effectively communicate ideas or principles so that they become internalized beliefs or behavior

Etymology: The verb "instill" comes straight from Latin "instillare," a compound of "in-" ("into") and "stilla," meaning "drop." To instill something was originally to let it fall in drop by drop, the way a liquid is poured into a container, and English took the word over with that physical image intact. Only later did the figurative sense of gradually placing an idea, value or feeling into someone's mind take hold. Read this way, the modern sense is just the old image moved from liquid to character. Someone who instills good habits in a child is, in effect, dripping them in slowly until they fill the vessel. The word's core notion of gradual, deliberate addition has stayed the same through the transfer from the literal to the moral.

Synonyms: imparts, injects, infuses, introduces, induces

Antonyms: removes, erases, eliminates, dissipates, dislodges