institute
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈɪnstɪt(j)uːt/, /ˈɪnstɪtʃuːt/
Noun

institute (plural institutes)

  1. An organization founded to promote a cause
    I work in a medical research institute.
  2. An institution of learning; a college, especially for technical subjects
  3. The building housing such an institution
  4. (obsolete) The act of instituting; institution.
    • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have hindred it., Printed, for Thomas Underhill; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916, OCLC 260112239 ↗:
      water sanctified by Christ's institute
  5. (obsolete) That which is instituted, established, or fixed, such as a law, habit, or custom.
    • They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy.
    • to make the Stoics' institutes thy own
  6. (legal, Scotland) The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.
Translations
  • Russian: институ́т
  • Spanish: instituto
Translations Translations Verb

institute (institutes, present participle instituting; past and past participle instituted)

  1. (transitive) To begin or initiate (something); to found.
    He instituted the new policy of having children walk through a metal detector to enter school.
    • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
      And haply institute / A course of learning and ingenious studies.
    • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence:
      Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To train, instruct.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
      Publius was the first that ever instituted the Souldier to manage his armes by dexteritie and skil, and joyned art unto vertue, not for the use of private contentions, but for the wars and Roman peoples quarrels.
    • If children were early instituted, knowledge would insensibly insinuate itself.
  3. To nominate; to appoint.
    • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      We institute your Grace / To be our regent in these parts of France.
  4. (ecclesiastical, legal) To invest with the spiritual charge of a benefice, or the care of souls.
Translations Adjective

institute (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Established; organized; founded.
    • (More's Utopia)
      They have but few laws. For to a people so instruct and institute, very few to suffice.
Related terms


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