instruct
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪnˈstɹʌkt/
ipa: /ɪnˈstɹakt/
rhymes: -ʌkt
Forms: form: instructs
form: instructing
form: instructed
form: instructed
Etymology: From Latin īnstrūctus, perfect passive participle of īnstruō (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).
Senses: examples: text: Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.
text: Supply me with the habit and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me
Like a true friar.
ref: 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]:
text: What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.
ref: 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count, London: Jacob Tonson, act III, scene 2, page 33:
text: 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,
text: […] 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.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “chapter 10”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
text: At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]
ref: 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:
synonyms: educate
guide
glosses: To teach by giving instructions.
examples: text: Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"
text: The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy.
text: What, shall a child instruct you what to do?
ref: 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]:
text: All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 39, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
text: 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.”
ref: 1989, John Irving, chapter 5, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: Ballantine, published 1997, page 195:
synonyms: command
direct
order
glosses: To tell (someone) what they must or should do.
examples: text: If you're not careful, I'm going to instruct a solicitor over this.
glosses: 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.
Derived terms: instructability
instructee
instructer
instructology
instructory
misinstruct
preinstruct
uninstructing
Related terms: instructable
instructible
instruction
instructive
instructor
instructress
overinstruct
reinstruct
underinstruct
uninstructed