inner
Noun pluralinners
Pluralinners
- 1Located or happening farther inside something, closer to its center than the outer parts.
The building's inner courtyard stayed hidden from the busy street.
A second, inner wall protected the fortress when the outer one fell.
Similarinterior, internal, inside, central
Oppositeouter, exterior, outside, external
Note
A comparative in disguise: Old English innera was the comparative of inne, "within," which is why the word already carries the idea of "farther in." That built-in comparison explains why innermore is rare and inmore obsolete, while two superlatives, innermost and inmost, both survive. It pairs naturally with whatever has an inside worth naming: an inner door, an inner room, an inner sanctum, the inner lining of an artery.
- 2
- 3
- 4Relating to the mind or spirit, or to a person's private feelings and mental life.
Meditation helped her find a lasting sense of inner peace.
He kept his inner thoughts hidden from everyone around him.
Similarprivate, personal, secret, intimate, spiritual
Oppositeoutward
Note
Here the inside of a room becomes the inside of a person, and the word gathers steady partners: inner peace, inner strength, inner life, inner light. Its liveliest modern use is playful. You find or channel your inner child, your inner artist, or, in Nathan Rabin's 2012 review of The Simpsons, Bart's inner carny. Each is a hidden self you can summon when the moment calls for it.
Faced with a room of restless kids, she channeled her inner teacher.
He finally let his inner artist out and started painting again.
- 5Not obvious or openly expressed; a deeper or hidden meaning that must be examined closely to be understood.
The poem's inner meaning only appears after several careful readings.
Critics debated the inner logic of the strange, dreamlike film.
Similarhidden, underlying, deeper, concealed, secret
Oppositeobvious, superficial, apparent
Note
What is hidden now belongs to a thing, not a person: a text's inner meaning, an argument's inner logic, a community's inner resources. That shift is the easiest way to tell it from the mental and spiritual meaning. Inner peace lives in someone, while inner logic lives in a system and waits to be worked out. The word often comes close to "essential," naming the core beneath the surface.
- 6Belonging to a small, privileged, or influential group with close access to a center of power.
Only the president's inner circle knew about the secret deal.
After years of loyalty, she joined the company's inner leadership.
Similarexclusive, close, privileged, select, core
Oppositeouter
Note
Power pictured as a center, with influence growing as you move closer to it. Inner circle is the fixed phrase, and inner council follows the same pattern. Writers can bend the image toward scandal as easily as toward prestige. Ben Travers's A Cuckoo in the Nest (1922) calls an exclusive set "an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom," where the closeness suggests vice rather than rank.
- 7A part located on the inside of something.
He removed the cracked inner before fitting a fresh casing.
Rust had eaten away at the pump's inners over the years.
Similarliner
- 8A duvet without its removable fabric cover.
She slid the inner into its freshly washed striped cover.
A goose-down inner keeps the bed warm without much weight.
Note
A South African word for the bedding itself: the filled duvet, as distinct from the washable cover that goes over it. Because the usage is regional, readers elsewhere may not recognize it. For an international audience, "duvet" or a fuller phrase is the safer choice. Among South African speakers, an inner and a cover are simply the two halves of the bed.
- 9An attacking player who plays in or near the center of the field.
The inner drifted between the defenders to receive the pass.
A clever inner links the wingers with the central striker.
Note
A positional name drawn from the "near the center" meaning: the inner played inside the wingers, in the attacking channels between them and the central striker. In football the term belongs to older formations. Newer role names have largely replaced it, so the word now tends to appear in historical accounts of the game rather than in current tactical talk.
- 10A thin glove worn beneath batting or wicket-keeping gloves in cricket.
The batsman replaced a torn inner between overs.
Wicket-keepers often wear two inners for extra padding.
Similarliner
Note
Cricket's name for the layer closest to the hand: a thin under-glove, usually cotton, worn beneath the padded batting or wicket-keeping gloves. It soaks up sweat and improves grip and comfort over a long innings. That is why a batsman may change one between overs, much as he would change a sodden pair of gloves.
- 11Someone in favor of staying in the European Union rather than leaving it.
The inner argued that leaving would damage the country's economy.
Inners and outers clashed in town halls across the country.
SimilarRemainer
Oppositeouter, Leaver, Brexiteer
Note
A coinage of British political debate over European Union membership, built on the plain image of being in or out. Its natural partner is outer, the supporter of leaving, and the two tend to appear together, as rival camps in a single argument. Outside that context the noun can puzzle readers, so it is best used where the referendum debate is already the subject.
- 12The second scoring ring on a target, lying between the bull's-eye and the magpie.
The marksman's round struck the inner, narrowly missing the bull.
Several inners brought his total close to a winning score.
Note
A marksman's term from the vocabulary of ring names on a target. Counting outward from the center, the bull comes first, then the inner, then the magpie and the outer rings. A shot in the inner scores less than a bull but more than a magpie. The word works as an ordinary count noun, so a shooter can tally several inners on a card.
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Origin
From Middle English inner, from Old English innera, the comparative of inne ("within"), which traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁en.