stir Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a prominent or sensational but short-lived news event
    splash.
    • he made a great splash and then disappeared
  2. noun emotional agitation and excitement
  3. noun a rapid active commotion
    fuss; flurry; bustle; ado; hustle.
  4. verb move an implement through
    • stir the soup
    • stir my drink
    • stir the soil
  5. verb move very slightly
    budge; shift; agitate.
    • He shifted in his seat
  6. verb stir feelings in
    excite; stimulate.
    • stimulate my appetite
    • excite the audience
    • stir emotions
  7. verb stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of
    shake up; excite; stimulate; shake.
    • These stories shook the community
    • the civil war shook the country
  8. verb affect emotionally
    touch.
    • A stirring movie
    • I was touched by your kind letter of sympathy
  9. verb summon into action or bring into existence, often as if by magic
    arouse; raise; invoke; conjure up; bring up; call down; call forth; evoke; put forward; conjure.
    • raise the specter of unemployment
    • he conjured wild birds in the air
    • call down the spirits from the mountain
  10. verb to begin moving, "As the thunder started the sleeping children began to stir"
    arouse.
  11. verb mix or add by stirring
    • Stir nuts into the dough

WordNet

Stir transitive verb
Etymology
OE. stiren, steren, sturen, AS. styrian; probably akin to D. storen to disturb, G. stören, OHG. storen to scatter, destroy. *166.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stirred ; present participle & verbal noun Stirring
Definitions
  1. To change the place of in any manner; to move.
    My foot I had never yet in five days been able to stir. Sir W. Temple.
  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.
    My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirred. Shak.
  3. To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot.
    Stir not questions of jurisdiction. Bacon.
  4. To incite to action; to arouse; to instigate; to prompt; to excite. "To stir men to devotion." Chaucer.
    An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife. Shak.
    And for her sake some mutiny will stir. Dryden.
    ✍ 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. Syn. -- To move; incite; awaken; rouse; animate; stimulate; excite; provoke.
Stir intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To move; to change one's position.
    I had not power to stir or strive, But felt that I was still alive. Byron.
  2. To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy one's self.
    All are not fit with them to stir and toil. Byron.
    The friends of the unfortunate exile, far from resenting his unjust suspicions, were stirring anxiously in his behalf. Merivale.
  3. To become the object of notice; to be on foot.
    They fancy they have a right to talk freely upon everything that stirs or appears. I. Watts.
  4. To rise, or be up, in the morning. Colloq. Shak.
Stir noun
Definitions
  1. The act or result of stirring; agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
    Why all these words, this clamor, and this stir? Denham.
    Consider, after so much stir about genus and species, how few words we have yet settled definitions of. Locke.
  2. Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
    Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England. Sir J. Davies.
  3. Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.

Webster 1913