Word: stir Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- Proto-Indo-European *(s)twr̥H-yé-ti? Proto-Germanic *sturjaną Proto-West Germanic *sturjan Old English styrian Middle English stiren English stir From Middle English stiren, sturien, steren, from Old English styrian (“to be in motion, move, agitate, stir, disturb, trouble”), from Proto-Germanic *sturiz (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), related to Proto-West Germanic *staurijan (“to destroy, disturb”). Cognate with Old Norse styrr (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), German stören (“to disturb”), Dutch storen (“to disturb”). Pronunciation: /stɜː/, /stɝ/, /stɪr/, /støː/, /steː/ 1. To disturb the relative position of the particles (of a liquid or similar) by passing an object through it. Labels: transitive Example: She stirred the pudding with a spoon. Example: He stirred his coffee so the sugar wouldn't stay at the bottom. 2. To disturb the content of (a container) by passing an object through it. Labels: transitive Example: Would you please stir this pot so that the chocolate doesn't burn? 3. To emotionally affect; to touch, to move. Labels: transitive Example: And what delights can equal those ⁠That stir the spirit’s inner deeps, ⁠When one that loves but knows not, reaps A truth from one that loves and knows? 4. To incite to action. Labels: transitive Example: An Ate, stirring him to bloud and strife […] Example: The Soldiers love her Brother’s Memory; / And for her sake some Mutiny will stir. 5. To bring into debate; to agitate. Labels: transitive Example: Preserue the rights of thy place, but stirre not questions of Iurisdiction : and rather assume thy right in silence, and de facto, then voice it with claimes, and challenges. 6. To disturb, to disrupt. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: They ſay he is the King of Perſea. But if he dare attempt to ſtir your ſiege, Twere requiſite he ſhould be ten times more, For all fleſh quakes at your magnificence. 7. To change the place of in any manner; to move. Labels: dated, transitive Example: […] notwithstanding the swelling of my Foot, so that I had never yet in five days been able to stir it, but as it was lifted. Example: 'But the bolts can't be stirred, dear,' protested Myra. 'I've tried myself until my poor thumbs are nearly dislocated. […]' 8. To begin to move, especially gently, from a still or unmoving position. Labels: intransitive Example: And especially if they happen to have any superior character or possessions in this world, they fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears[…] Example: I had not strength to stir or strive, / But felt that I was still alive— […] 9. Of a feeling or emotion: to rise, begin to be felt. Labels: intransitive Example: That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst. Example: Though as I said it, glibly, reassuringly, I knew that I lied, and a little snake of guilt stirred and began to uncoil slightly, guilt and its constant companion deceit. 10. To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself. Labels: intransitive Example: All are not fit with them to stir and toil. Example: Meanwhile, the friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf. 11. To rise from sleep or unconsciousness. Labels: intransitive Example: “Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins,” remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: “Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!”