adv. & a. [ Pref. a- + stir. ] Stirring; in a state of activity or motion; out of bed. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bestirred p. pr. & vb. n. Bestirring. ] To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; -- usually with the reciprocal pronoun. [ 1913 Webster ]

You have so bestirred your valor. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Stirred p. pr. & vb. n. Stirring. ] [ OE. stiren, steren, sturen, AS. styrian; probably akin to D. storen to disturb, G. stören, OHG. stōren to scatter, destroy. √166. ] 1. To change the place of in any manner; to move. [ 1913 Webster ]

My foot I had never yet in five days been able to stir. Sir W. Temple. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To disturb the relative position of the particles of, as of a liquid, by passing something through it; to agitate; as, to stir a pudding with a spoon. [ 1913 Webster ]

My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stir not questions of jurisdiction. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To incite to action; to arouse; to instigate; to prompt; to excite. “To stir men to devotion.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

And for her sake some mutiny will stir. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In all senses except the first, stir is often followed by up with an intensive effect; as, to stir up fire; to stir up sedition. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To move; incite; awaken; rouse; animate; stimulate; excite; provoke. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To move; to change one's position. [ 1913 Webster ]

I had not power to stir or strive,
But felt that I was still alive. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy one's self. [ 1913 Webster ]

All are not fit with them to stir and toil. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

The friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf. Merivale. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To become the object of notice; to be on foot. [ 1913 Webster ]

They fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears. I. Watts. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To rise, or be up, in the morning. [ Colloq. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act or result of stirring; agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why all these words, this clamor, and this stir? Denham. [ 1913 Webster ]

Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar. [ 1913 Webster ]

Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England. Sir J. Davies. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A dish formed of oatmeal boiled in water to a certain consistency and frequently stirred, or of oatmeal and dripping mixed together and stirred about in a pan; a hasty pudding. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. stiria an icicle. ] Adorned with pendants like icicles. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. stiria an icicle. ] Resembling icicles. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. stric, from steór a steer. See Steer a young ox. ] A young bullock or heifer. [ Prov. Eng. & Scot. ] Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Without stirring; very quiet; motionless. “Lying helpless and stirless.” Hare. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. stirps, stirpis. ] Stock; race; family. [ Obs. ] Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. stirps, stirpis, stem, stock, race + cultura culture. ] The breeding of special stocks or races. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n.; pl. Stirpes [ L., stem, stock. ] 1. (Law) Stock; race; family. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A race, or a fixed and permanent variety. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of stirring; stir; commotion. [ Obs. ] T. Granger. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, stirs something; also, one who moves about, especially after sleep; as, an early stirrer. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stirrer up, an instigator or inciter. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Putting in motion, or being in motion; active; active in business; habitually employed in some kind of business; accustomed to a busy life. [ 1913 Webster ]

A more stirring and intellectual age than any which had gone before it. Southey. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Animating; arousing; awakening; stimulating; quickening; exciting. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. stirop, AS. stigrāp; stīgan to mount, ascend + rāp a rope; akin to G. stegreif a stirrup. √164. See Sty, v. i., and Rope. ] 1. A kind of ring, or bent piece of metal, wood, leather, or the like, horizontal in one part for receiving the foot of a rider, and attached by a strap to the saddle, -- used to assist a person in mounting a horse, and to enable him to sit steadily in riding, as well as to relieve him by supporting a part of the weight of the body. [ 1913 Webster ]

Our host upon his stirpoes stood anon. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Carp. & Mach.) Any piece resembling in shape the stirrup of a saddle, and used as a support, clamp, etc. See Bridle iron. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Naut.) A rope secured to a yard, with a thimble in its lower end for supporting a footrope. Totten. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stirrup bone (Anat.), the stapes. --
Stirrup cup, a parting cup taken after mounting. --
Stirrup iron, an iron stirrup. --
Stirrup leather, or
Stirrup strap, the strap which attaches a stirrup to the saddle. See Stirrup, 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

obs. p. p. of Start, v. i. Started; leaped. [ 1913 Webster ]

They privily be stirt into a well. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

obs. imp. of Start, v. i. & t. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To summer-fallow. [ 1913 Webster ]

See accommodating.
See aching.
See ailing.
See aiming.
See alarming.
See altering.
See appreciating.
See approving.
See aspiring.
See assisting.
See attempting.
See attending.
See bearing.
See befitting.
See beginning.
See believing.
See bleaching.
See bleeding.
See blemishing.
See blenching.
See blossoming.
See blushing.
See boding.
See branching.
See breathing.
See burning.
See calculating.
See ceasing.
See changing.
See charming.
See communicating.
See complaining.
See complying.
See conceiving.
See conducing.
See confessing.
See conniving.
See consenting.
See considering.
See conspiring.
See consulting.
See consuming.
See contending.
See contriving.
See conversing.
See convincing.
See dawning.
See decaying.
See delaying.
See depending.
See derogating.
See deserving.
See desiring.
See despairing.
See detesting.
See deviating.
See differencing.
See discerning.
See discording.
See discriminating.
See disobliging.
See dispensing.
See dissembling.
See dissolving.
See distinguishing.
See distracting.
See disturbing.
See doubting.
See dreading.
See drooping.
See ebbing.
See echoing.
See edifying.
See ending.
See enduring.
See engaging.
See enjoying.
See entering.
See enterprising.
See entertaining.
See envying.
See existing.
See fadging.
See fading.
See fainting.
See faltering.
See fearing.
See feigning.
See fighting.
See fitting.
See flagging.
See flattering.
See flinching.
See folding.
See forbearing.
See foreboding.
See foreseeing.
See forgiving.
See giving.
See grudging.
See harming.
See heeding.
See hesitating.
See hoping.
See hurting.
See importing.
See imposing.
See improving.
See interesting.
See intermitting.
See intoxicating.
See inviting.
See jarring.
See laboring.
See lingering.
See listening.
See loving.
See meddling.
See meriting.
See mistrusting.
See moving.
See murmuring.
See obliging.
See observing.
See offending.
See opening.
See pardoning.
See paying.
See perceiving.
See performing.
See perishing.
See pitying.
See pleasing.
See possessing.
See preaching.
See prepossessing.
See presuming.
See pretending.
See prevailing.
See prevaricating.
See profiting.
See promising.
See proving.
See quailing.
See questioning.
See reasoning.
See recalling.
See reclining.
See recurring.
See referring.
See reflecting.
See refunding.
See refusing.
See rejoicing.
See relaxing.
See relishing.
See remembering.
See repenting.
See repining.
See reproving.
See repulsing.
See resisting.
See resolving.
See resting.
See returning.
See rewarding.
See sanctifying.
See satisfying.
See searching.
See seeing.
See setting.
See shrinking.
See sinking.
See sleeping.
See slipping.
See slumbering.
See speaking.
See stinting.
See stirring.
See stooping.
See submitting.
See sufficing.
See suiting.
See surging.
See suspecting.
See sweating.
See swerving.
See sympathizing.
See tasting.
See thriving.
See tiring.
See toiling.
See trading.
See trembling.
See trespassing.
See trifling.
See vacillating.
See varying.
See walking.
See wandering.
See waning.
See wasting.
See wavering.
See weeping.
See winking.
See winning.
See withdrawing.
See withering.
See wondering.
See working.
See writing.
See yielding.
----- and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

The above classes of words are unlimited in extent, and such compounds may be formed by any writer or speaker at will from almost all the adjectives or participles in the language, excepting those which have a recognized and usual negative correspondent with the prefix -in. No attempt will be made, therefore, to define them all in this Dictionary; many will be omitted from its Vocabulary which are negations of the simple word, and are readily explained by prefixing a not to the latter. Derivatives of these words in -ly and -ness will also, for the most part, be omitted for the same or similar reasons. [ 1913 Webster ]

There will be inserted as separate articles with definitions, the following: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Those which have acquired an opposed or contrary, instead of a merely negative, meaning; as, unfriendly, ungraceful, unpalatable, unquiet, and the like; or else an intensive sense more than a prefixed not would express; as, unending, unparalleled, undisciplined, undoubted, unsafe, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Those which have the value of independent words, inasmuch as the simple words are either not used at all, or are rarely, or at least much less frequently, used; as, unavoidable, unconscionable, undeniable, unspeakable, unprecedented, unruly, and the like; or inasmuch as they are used in a different sense from the usual meaning of the primitive, or especially in one of the significations of the latter; as, unaccountable, unalloyed, unbelieving, unpretending, unreserved, and the like; or inasmuch as they are so frequently and familiarly used that they are hardly felt to be of negative origin; as, uncertain, uneven, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Those which are anomalous, provincial, or, for some other reason, not desirable to be used, and are so indicated; as, unpure for impure, unsatisfaction for dissatisfaction, unexpressible for inexpressible, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

II. Un- is prefixed to nouns to express the absence of, or the contrary of, that which the noun signifies; as, unbelief, unfaith, unhealth, unrest, untruth, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Compounds of this last class are given in full in their proper order in the Vocabulary. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Insurrection; commotion; disturbance. [ Obs. ] Sir J. Cheke. [ 1913 Webster ]