r]
verb, -spired, -spir⋅ing.| 1. | to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence: His courage inspired his followers. |
| 2. | to produce or arouse (a feeling, thought, etc.): to inspire confidence in others. |
| 3. | to fill or affect with a specified feeling, thought, etc.: to inspire a person with distrust. |
| 4. | to influence or impel: Competition inspired her to greater efforts. |
| 5. | to animate, as an influence, feeling, thought, or the like, does: They were inspired by a belief in a better future. |
| 6. | to communicate or suggest by a divine or supernatural influence: writings inspired by God. |
| 7. | to guide or control by divine influence. |
| 8. | to prompt or instigate (utterances, acts, etc.) by influence, without avowal of responsibility. |
| 9. | to give rise to, bring about, cause, etc.: a philosophy that inspired a revolution. |
| 10. | to take (air, gases, etc.) into the lungs in breathing; inhale. |
| 11. | Archaic.
|
| 12. | to give inspiration. |
| 13. | to inhale. |

inspire in·spire (ĭn-spīr')
v. in·spired, in·spir·ing, in·spires
To draw in breath; to inhale.