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INSTINCT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Inborn pattern of behavior often responsive to specific stimuli
Example:
altruistic instincts in social animals
Synonyms:
inherent aptitude; instinct
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("instinct" is a kind of...):
aptitude (inherent ability)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "instinct"):
id ((psychoanalysis) primitive instincts and energies underlying all psychic activity)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(followed by 'with') deeply filled or permeated
Example:
it is replete with misery
Synonyms:
instinct; replete
Classified under:
Similar:
full (containing as much or as many as is possible or normal)
Context examples:
But you have no instinct in that direction.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
After an interval I arose, and as if by instinct, crawled into the room where the corpse of my beloved lay.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
You are an intellectual sign, so you like to have facts to pin to your decisions, but in the coming year, your instinct will be sharp, and you will need to trust it.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Every instinct that I possess cries out against it.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Her judgment was as young as she, but her instincts were as old as the race and older.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Even in my short life I had learned as much as that—or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
By what instinct do you pretend to distinguish between a fallen seraph of the abyss and a messenger from the eternal throne—between a guide and a seducer?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She had never read Sartor Resartus, but she had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Nevertheless, pure instinct prompts many of these dogs to herd their owners, especially the children of the family.
(Herding Breed, NCI Thesaurus)
Alleyne gazed in admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; but the archer's fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes glistened with the fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
