insinuate
verb
- to convey (a statement or notion) by direct suggestion
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɪnˈsɪnjueɪt/
adj
Etymology: First attested in 1529; Borrowed from Latin īnsinuātus, perfect passive participle of īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”) -ō (verb-forming suffix). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
- Insinuated.
“The great mistery of Christes passyon […] lyttle and lyttle at sundry seasons to bee sygnifyed and insinuate conueniently to man.”
verb
Etymology: First attested in 1529; Borrowed from Latin īnsinuātus, perfect passive participle of īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”) -ō (verb-forming suffix). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
- To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.
“She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.”
“And wilt thou inſinuate what I am? and praiſe me? And ſay I am a Noble Fellow?”
- To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.
“1728-1729, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England Water will insinuate itself into Flints through certain imperceptible Cracks”
“Some speakers allow the sound of r to insinuate itself between the a and s of wash”
- To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.
“All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.”
“Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.”