as in plants
to set permanently in the consciousness or mind-set
a charismatic leader who instilled in his followers a passionate commitment to the cause
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Recent Examples of instills
That’s why activating existing natural strengths not only boosts the leader’s self-confidence but also instills trust in the team.
—
Gamze Acar Bayraktaroglu, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
As Defense Secretary Dan Ogilvy (Pip Carter) is appointed as interim Prime Minister, Livingston deploys the military into the streets and instills a 24-hour media blackout.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
There’s a scene in a restaurant in which Sylvia, while reeling from the effects of a weed gummy, tries to unearth a few secrets from her friends, and the way Byrne instills her character’s false confidence into every inebriated gesture and slurred word is nothing short of stunning.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Aug. 2025
Leguizamo instills Bob with a touching tenderness.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 22 Mar. 2025
This knowledge of your limits instills trust and collaboration, allowing others space to chip in with their own abilities.
—Melissa Sierra, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2025
The school districts allege the companies designed their products in a way that encourages compulsive use, instills anxiety when users aren’t on the platform often enough and provides inadequate parental controls.
—Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Feb. 2025
One intervention program instills a love of learning and fosters self-esteem.
—Ogar Monday, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Feb. 2025
Gamze Acar Bayraktaroglu, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
As Defense Secretary Dan Ogilvy (Pip Carter) is appointed as interim Prime Minister, Livingston deploys the military into the streets and instills a 24-hour media blackout.
—Randall Colburn, EW.com, 22 Aug. 2025
There’s a scene in a restaurant in which Sylvia, while reeling from the effects of a weed gummy, tries to unearth a few secrets from her friends, and the way Byrne instills her character’s false confidence into every inebriated gesture and slurred word is nothing short of stunning.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Aug. 2025
Leguizamo instills Bob with a touching tenderness.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 22 Mar. 2025
This knowledge of your limits instills trust and collaboration, allowing others space to chip in with their own abilities.
—Melissa Sierra, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2025
The school districts allege the companies designed their products in a way that encourages compulsive use, instills anxiety when users aren’t on the platform often enough and provides inadequate parental controls.
—Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Feb. 2025
One intervention program instills a love of learning and fosters self-esteem.
—Ogar Monday, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for instills
Verb
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Stray Bullets • In this week’s post-credits scene, Adrian removes the pants of the drunk, sleeping John Economos and plants a tender kiss on his forehead.—
Scott Meslow,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
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Space plants 1 to 3 feet apart.—
Rita Pelczar,
Better Homes & Gardens,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Stay Uncomfortable Comfort breeds complacency.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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The mix of casual shoppers and focused design professionals blends beautifully in the Southern sun and also breeds an element of fun.—
Jennifer Prince,
Southern Living,
6 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Splunk’s new approach embeds agentic AI directly into Splunk Observability Cloud and Splunk AppDynamics, which continuously analyzes telemetry, flags anomalies, diagnoses root causes and recommends fixes.—
Victor Dey,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
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This technique embeds invisible commands inside the body of an email.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
15 Aug. 2025
Verb
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In a strong culture, everyone roots their daily decisions in a desire to be in it to win it; there's a sense of ownership, pride and belonging.—
Alex Brueckmann,
Forbes.com,
12 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Instills.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instills. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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