# instruct
## English
### Etymology

From Latin īnstrūctus, perfect passive participle of īnstruō (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /ɪnˈstɹʌkt/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian) IPA: /ɪnˈstɹakt/
* Rhymes: -ʌkt

### Verb

instruct (third-person singular simple present instructs, present participle instructing, simple past and past participle instructed)
* (transitive) To teach by giving instructions.
    Synonyms: educate, guide
    Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.
** c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:Supply me with the habit and instruct me How I may formally in person bear me Like a true friar.
** 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count‎, London: Jacob Tonson, act III, scene 2, page 33:What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.
** 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177,
    […] the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,
** 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “chapter 10”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:[…] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you.
** 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, chapter 29, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part 4, page 353:At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]
* (transitive) To tell (someone) what they must or should do.
    Synonyms: command, direct, order
    Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"
    The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy.
** 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
** 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 39, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]
** 1989, John Irving, chapter 5, in A Prayer for Owen Meany‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1997, page 195:Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”
* (transitive) To give (one's own lawyer) legal instructions as to how they should act in relation to a particular issue; thereby formally appointing them as one's own legal representative in relation to it.
    If you're not careful, I'm going to instruct a solicitor over this.

#### Related terms

* instructable, instructible
* instruction
* instructive
* instructor
* instructress
* overinstruct
* reinstruct
* underinstruct
* uninstructed

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Noun

instruct (plural instructs)
* (obsolete) Instruction.

### Adjective

instruct (not comparable)
* (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided.
** c. 1615, George Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses‎, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 4, p. 62:For he had neither ship, instruct with oares, Nor men to fetch him from those stranger shores.
* (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened.
** 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained‎, London: John Starkey, Book 1, lines 438-441, p. 24:Who ever by consulting at thy shrine Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct To flye or follow what concern’d him most, And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

### Anagrams

* unstrict