instruct

English

Etymology

From Latin īnstrūctus, perfect passive participle of īnstruō (“I instruct; I arrange, furnish, or provide”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɹʌkt/

  • Audio (US)

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɹakt/
• Rhymes: -ʌkt

Verb

instruct (third-person singular simple present instructs, present participle instructing, simple past and past participle instructed)

1. (transitive) To teach by giving instructions.

   Synonyms: educate, guide

   Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Supply me with the habit and instruct me
     How I may formally in person bear me
     Like a true friar.

   • 1682, Aphra Behn, The False Count‎, London: Jacob Tonson, act III, scene 2, page 33:

     What a dishonour’s this, to me, to have so Dull a Father, that needs to be instructed in his Duty.

   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 156, 14 September, 1751, in Volume 5, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 177,

     the design of tragedy is to instruct by moving the passions,

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “chapter 10”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     […] I should deem you a man sore sick, it may be, yet not so sick but that an instructed and watchful physician might well hope to cure you.

   • 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, chapter 29, in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN, part 4, page 353:

     At the Laundromat I instruct Chris on how to operate the drier, start the washing machines […]

2. (transitive) To tell (someone) what they must or should do.

   Synonyms: command, direct, order

   Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"

   The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 39, in Vanity Fair , London: Bradbury and Evans , published 1848, →OCLC:

     All the servants were instructed to address her as “Mum,” or “Madam” […]

   • 1989, John Irving, chapter 5, in A Prayer for Owen Meany‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1997, page 195:

     Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”

3. (transitive) To give (one's own lawyer) legal instructions as to how they should act in relation to a particular issue; thereby formally appointing them as one's own legal representative in relation to it.

   If you're not careful, I'm going to instruct a solicitor over this.

Related terms

Translations

Noun

instruct (plural instructs)

1. (obsolete) Instruction.

Adjective

instruct (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided.
   • c. 1615, George Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses‎, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 4, p. 62:

     For he had neither ship, instruct with oares,
     Nor men to fetch him from those stranger shores.

2. (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained‎, London: John Starkey, Book 1, lines 438-441, p. 24:

     Who ever by consulting at thy shrine
     Return’d the wiser, or the more instruct
     To flye or follow what concern’d him most,
     And run not sooner to his fatal snare?

Anagrams

• unstrict