INSTINCT n. 5 definitions
Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished. An instinct is a propensity prior to experience, and independent of instructions. Paley. An instinct is a blind tendency t…
INSTINCTIVE a.
nstinct; derived from, or prompted by, instinct; of the nature of instinct; determined by natural impulse or propensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous. "Instinctive motion." Milton. "Instinctive dread." Cowper. With taste instinctive give Each grace appropri…
INTERJECTIONAL a. 2 definitions
Pertaining to, or having the nature of, an interjection; consisting of natural and spontaneous exclamations. Certain of the natural accompaniments of interjectional speech, such as gestures, grimaces, and gesticulations, are restrained by civilization. Earle.
INTERMITTENT a. 2 definitions
ain or drought. They probably owe their intermittent action to their being connected with natural reservoirs in hills or mountains by passages having the form of a siphon, the water beginning to flow when it has accumulated so as to fill the upper part of the siphon, and ceasing when, by running through it, it has fall…
INVERT a. 7 definitions
ugar (Chem.), a variety of sugar, consisting of a mixture of dextrose and levulose, found naturally in fruits, and produced artificially by the inversion of cane sugar (sucrose); also, less properly, the grape sugar or dextrose obtained from starch. See Inversion, Dextrose, Levulose, and Sugar.
IRIDACEOUS; IRIDEOUS a.
Pertaining to, or resembling, a large natural order of endogenous plants (Iridaceæ), which includes the genera Iris, Ixia, Crocus, Gladiolus, and many others.
IRRITABILITY n. 3 definitions
A natural susceptibility, characteristic of all living organisms, tissues, and cells, to the influence of certain stimuli, response being manifested in a variety of ways, -- as that quality in plants by which they exhibit motion under suitable stimulation; esp., the property which living muscle processes, of responding…