inspiring

Pluralinspirings

1. 1
   adjective

   Filling others with energy, hope, or the desire to create or achieve something.

   The coach gave an inspiring talk before the championship match.

   Few sights are as inspiring as the mountain summit at dawn.

   Similaruplifting, stirring, rousing, motivating, moving

   Oppositeuninspiring, dispiriting, discouraging, dull

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of inspire.

   The volunteers are inspiring younger children to read more.

   Their quiet courage is inspiring people across the country.

   Note

   The verb form keeps the verb's object: the volunteers are inspiring children. That object is the quickest test against the adjective, which takes none and can be graded (more inspiring, most inspiring), while the participle cannot. It also carries every meaning of inspire, including the old breathing one, in which inspiring simply means drawing breath in.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or quality of stirring others to feel, create, or achieve something.

   Good leadership depends on the inspiring of those around you.

   Great mentorship is as much about the inspiring of curiosity as the passing on of facts.

   Similarmotivation, encouragement, stimulation

   Oppositediscouragement

   Note

   A noun that can be counted as well as massed. Alongside the inspiring of curiosity there are inspirings in the plural, separate promptings that come from a person. The Eclectic Magazine of 1874 speaks of "the sweet intellectual inspirings" of John Stuart Mill's wife. Inspiration covers the same ground. This form puts the act itself in front, and it is usually followed by of.

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