Word of the Day

: January 22, 2011

imbue

verb im-BYOO

What It Means

1 : to tinge or dye deeply

2 : endow

imbue in Context

The singer imbued her voice with a profound sadness for the haunting ballad.

"Friedlander suggests that if only the business schools, their deans and students had studied Nelson Mandela's inspiring life, and if only they had learned how he had generated his enormous moral authority and had honed his leadership and negotiating skills, then perhaps this would have helped imbue in everyone the qualities that so many of their graduates lacked in the high-profile scams." -- From an article in American Consumer News, December 8, 2010

Did You Know?

Like its synonym "infuse," "imbue" implies the introduction of one thing into another so as to affect it throughout. A nation can be imbued with pride, for example, or a photograph might be imbued with a sense of melancholy. In the past "imbue" has also been used synonymously with "imbrue," an obscure word meaning "to drench or stain," but etymologists do not think the two words are related. "Imbue" derives from the Latin verb "imbuere," meaning "to dye, wet, or moisten." "Imbrue" has been traced back through Anglo-French and Old French to the Latin verb "bibere," meaning "to drink."