to move one's hand or an implement continuously or repeatedly through (a liquid or other substance) in order to cool, mix, agitate, dissolve, etc., any or all of the component parts: to stir one's coffee with a spoon.
2.
to set in tremulous, fluttering, or irregular motion: A soft breeze stirred the leaves.
3.
to affect strongly; excite: to stir pity; to stir one's heart.
4.
to incite, instigate, or prompt (usually followed by up ): to stir up a people to rebellion.
5.
to move briskly; bestir: to stir oneself.
6.
to move, especially in a slight way: He would not stir a finger to help them.
7.
to rouse from inactivity, quiet, contentment, indifference, etc. (usually followed by up ): to stir up his potential.
O.E. styrian, from P.Gmc. *sturjanan (cf. M.Du. stoeren, Du. storen "to disturb," O.H.G. storan "to scatter, destroy," Ger. stören "to disturb"), probably from the root of storm (q.v.). The noun sense of "commotion, disturbance, tumult" (late 14c., in phrase on steir)
is probably from O.N. styrr "disturbance, tumult" (see storm), from the same P.Gmc. root; the sense of "movement, bustle" is probably from the Eng. verb. Stir-fry (v.) is attested from 1959.
n. prison. (Underworld.) : I can't stand being in stir!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Lower the heat, add the well-stirred potato flour to the sauce, stirring as it thickens.
He ascribed the stirred-up hysteria to the election calendar.
Stirred into the dough and sprinkled on top, the herb has a definite but not overpowering presence.
Within the last ten years the science of signal processing has undergone a revolution, one stirred up largely by wavelets.
The sun is setting and the light is soft and stirred in reds and yellows.
They waded into the pond and stirred up the mud with their feet, so as to make the water unfit to drink.
Sticking out were the bird's tail and its wire-thin feet, which stirred slightly-strange flowers in a strange vase.
Communism stirred to life again only when another propitious source of power arose on the political horizon.
The coffee-and-water mixture is stirred and slowly heated over medium heat.
Producing the hydrates requires mixing natural gas with water in a continuously stirred tank reactor.