Library / English Dictionary

INHABIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be an inhabitant of or reside in

Example:

deer are populating the woods

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit; live; populate

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "inhabit" is one way to...):

be (occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "inhabit"):

tenant (occupy as a tenant)

neighbor; neighbour (live or be located as a neighbor)

lodge in; occupy; reside (live (in a certain place))

domicile; domiciliate; reside; shack (make one's home in a particular place or community)

people (furnish with people)

overpopulate (cause to have too great a population)

cohabit; live together; shack up (share living quarters; usually said of people who are not married and live together as a couple)

lodge (be a lodger; stay temporarily)

bivouac; camp; camp out; encamp; tent (live in or as if in a tent)

nest (inhabit a nest, usually after building)

board; room (live and take one's meals at or in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

inhabitancy (the act of dwelling in or living permanently in a place (said of both animals and men))

inhabitant (a person who inhabits a particular place)

inhabitation (the act of dwelling in or living permanently in a place (said of both animals and men))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be present in

Example:

sweet memories inhabit this house

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "inhabit" is one way to...):

be (occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "inhabit"):

infest (live on or in a host, as of parasites)

infest; invade; overrun (occupy in large numbers or live on a host)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

inhabitation (the act of dwelling in or living permanently in a place (said of both animals and men))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Exist or be situated within

Example:

Strange notions inhabited her mind

Synonyms:

dwell; inhabit

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "inhabit" is one way to...):

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

I have just opened the window, to let in a little air and sunshine; for everything gets so damp in apartments that are seldom inhabited; the drawing-room yonder feels like a vault.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The bacteria and other microorganisms that normally inhabit the pharynx or respiratory tract.

(Pharyngeal/Respiratory Flora, NCI Thesaurus)

How often did I wish, added he, when I was at Allenham this time twelvemonth, that Barton cottage were inhabited!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It had been their school-room; so called till the Miss Bertrams would not allow it to be called so any longer, and inhabited as such to a later period.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Henry was alone in it; and his immediate hope of her having been undisturbed by the tempest, with an arch reference to the character of the building they inhabited, was rather distressing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A genus of the family PICORNAVIRIDAE whose members preferentially inhabit the intestinal tract of a variety of hosts.

(Enterovirus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Thiopeptides are a relatively new class of antibiotics that have previously been found in organisms that inhabit the soil and the seas.

(Human Body Microbes Make Antibiotics, Study Finds, NCCAM)

Remains of food and other materials left in caves inhabited by pack rats which are preserved and serve as a "time capsule" of the vegetation of the time and, by extension, the climate.

(Pack rat middens, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

The native people inhabiting the Arctic of northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska, or eastern Siberia.

(Eskimo, NCI Thesaurus)

E. coli, for instance, inhabits the complicated terrain of the gastrointestinal tract.

(Bacteria change behavior to tackle tiny obstacle course, National Science Foundation)