stir

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stɜː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /stɝ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English stiren, sturien, from Old English styrian (“to be in motion, move, agitate, stir, disturb, trouble”), from Proto-Germanic *sturiz (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), related to Proto-West Germanic *staurijan (“to destroy, disturb”). Cognate with Old Norse styrr (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), German stören (“to disturb”), Dutch storen (“to disturb”).

Verb

stir (third-person singular simple present stirs, present participle stirring, simple past and past participle stirred)

1. (transitive) To disturb the relative position of the particles of (a liquid or similar) by passing an object through it.

   Synonym: agitate

   She stirred the pudding with a spoon.

   He stirred his coffee so the sugar wouldn't stay at the bottom.

   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida‎, act III, scene 3:

     My minde is troubled, like a Fountaine stir'd, / And I my selfe see not the bottome of it.

2. (transitive) To disturb the content of (a container) by passing an object through it.

   Would you please stir this pot so that the chocolate doesn't burn?

3. (transitive) To emotionally affect; to touch, to move.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XLI, page 64:

     And what delights can equal those
     ⁠That stir the spirit’s inner deeps,
     ⁠When one that loves but knows not, reaps
     A truth from one that loves and knows?

4. (transitive) To incite to action.

   Synonyms: arouse, instigate, prompt, excite; see also Thesaurus:incite

   • late 14th century, Chaucer, “The Pardoner’s prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales‎, (1561 edition), published 1868, page 214:

     And in latin I speke wordes a fewe / To sauer with my predication / And for to stere men to devocion.

     And in Latin I speak a wordës few, / To saffron with my predicatión, / And for to stir men to devotión.

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John‎, act I, scene 2:

     An Ate, stirring him to bloud and strife […]

   • c. 1670, John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or the Royal Martyr‎, III.1:

     The Soldiers love her Brother’s Memory; / And for her sake some Mutiny will stir.

5. (transitive) To bring into debate; to agitate.
   • 1613, Francis Bacon, chapter 8, in The Essaies‎, London:

     Preserue the rights of thy place, but stirre not questions of Iurisdiction : and rather assume thy right in silence, and de facto, then voice it with claimes, and challenges.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To disturb, to disrupt.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene i:

     They ſay he is the King of Perſea.
     But if he dare attempt to ſtir your ſiege,
     Twere requiſite he ſhould be ten times more,
     For all fleſh quakes at your magnificence.

7. (transitive, dated) To change the place of in any manner; to move.
   • 1677, Sir William Temple, “An Essay upon the Cure of Gout by Moxa”, in Miscellanea. The First Part, London, published 1705, page 209:

     […] notwithstanding the swelling of my Foot, so that I had never yet in five days been able to stir it, but as it was lifted.

8. (intransitive) To begin to move, especially gently, from a still or unmoving position.
   • 1741, Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind‎:

     And especially if they happen to have any superior character or possessions in this world, they fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears […]

   • 1816, Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon‎:

     I had not strength to stir or strive, / But felt that I was still alive— […]

9. (intransitive) Of a feeling or emotion: to rise, begin to be felt.
   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit:

     That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst.

   • 1993, Susan Hill, Mrs de Winter, published 1999, page 54:

     Though as I said it, glibly, reassuringly, I knew that I lied, and a little snake of guilt stirred and began to uncoil slightly, guilt and its constant companion deceit.

10. (intransitive) To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself.
    • 1818, Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage‎, canto III, stanza LXIX:

      All are not fit with them to stir and toil.

    • 1850, Charles Merivale, A History of the Romans under the Empire‎, volume 1:

      Meanwhile, the friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf.

11. (intransitive) To rise from sleep or unconsciousness.

    Synonyms: arise, get up, rouse; see also Thesaurus:wake

    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

      “Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins,” remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: “Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!”

Usage notes

• In all transitive senses except the dated one (“to change the place of in any manner”), stir is often followed by up with an intensive effect; as, to stir up fire; to stir up sedition.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

stir (countable and uncountable, plural stirs)

1. The act or result of stirring (moving around the particles of a liquid etc.)

   Can you give the soup a little stir?

2. agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
   • 1668, John Denham, Of Prudence (poem).

     Why all these words, this clamour, and this stir?

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§107”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A and J Churchill, , →OCLC:

     Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of.

   • 1951 May, J. Pelham Maitland, “A Memorable Run by a Brighton "Terrier"”, in Railway Magazine, page 347:

     Meantime, the train went on to Brighton without further incident. No small stir was caused by its arrival with No. 61 at its head, resplendent with "East London Line Special" head boards, which at once caught the eye of William Stroudley, who was observing the traffic working from his office window.

   • 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 7:

     When the long, hot journey drew to its end and the train slowed down for the last time, there was a stir in Jessamy’s carriage. People began to shake crumbs from their laps and tidy themselves up a little.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stir.
3. Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
   • 1612, Sir John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued:

     Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stir.
4. Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Romani stariben (“prison”), nominalisation of (a)star (“seize”), causative of ast (“remain”), probably from Sanskrit आतिष्ठति (ātiṣṭhati, “stand or remain by”), from तिष्ठति (tiṣṭhati, “stand”).

Noun

stir (countable and uncountable, plural stirs)

1. (slang) Jail; prison.

   He's going to be spending maybe ten years in stir.

   • 1928, Jack Callahan, Man's Grim Justice: My Life Outside the Law, page 42:

     Sing Sing was a tough joint in those days, one of the five worst stirs in the United States.

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• ISTR, RTIs, Rist, TRIS, TRIs, Tris, rits, sirt, tris, tris-

Danish

Verb

stir

1. imperative of stirre

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

stir

1. imperative of stira