• (RP) IPA: /stɜː/
• (GA) IPA: /stɝ/

stir (stirs, present participle stirring; past and past participle stirred)

1. (transitive) To incite to action

   Synonyms: arouse, instigate, prompt, excite, Thesaurus:incite

2. (transitive) To disturb the relative position of the particles of, as of a liquid, by passing something through it; to agitate.

   She stirred the pudding with a spoon.

3. (transitive) To agitate the content of (a container), by passing something through it.

   Would you please stand here and stir this pot so that the chocolate doesn't burn?

4. (transitive) To bring into debate; to agitate; to moot.
5. (transitive, dated) To change the place of in any manner; to move.
6. (intransitive) To move; to change one’s position.
7. (intransitive) To be in motion; to be active or bustling; to exert or busy oneself.
8. (intransitive) To become the object of notice; to be on foot.
9. (intransitive, poetic) To rise, or be up and about, in the morning.

   Synonyms: arise, get up, rouse, Thesaurus:wake

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     “Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins,” remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: “Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!”

• German: bewegen
• Italian: muovere
• Portuguese: mover, mexer
• Russian: дви́гать

• French: remuer
• German: rühren
• Italian: mescolare
• Portuguese: mexer
• Russian: разме́шивать
• Spanish: revolver

• French: remuer, touiller
• German: umrühren
• Italian: agitare
• Portuguese: mexer, agitar
• Spanish: remover, revolver, mezclar

• German: hervorrufen
• Portuguese: agitar, incitar
• Russian: вызыва́ть

• German: anstacheln
• Portuguese: mexer
• Russian: вызыва́ть
• Spanish: revolver, agitar, arrebatar

• French: bouger
• Russian: дви́гаться

• French: agiter
• German: (sich) regen
• Russian: дви́гаться

• German: auffallen

stir

1. The act or result of stirring (moving around the particles of a liquid etc.)

   Can you give the soup a little stir?

2. agitation; tumult; bustle; noise or various movements.
   • .

     Why all these words, this clamor, and this stir?

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§107”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], OCLC 1161614482 ↗:

     .

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

3. Public disturbance or commotion; tumultuous disorder; seditious uproar.
   • .

     Being advertised of some stirs raised by his unnatural sons in England.

4. Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.

• German: Erregung
• Russian: неразбери́ха

• German: Aufruhr
• Russian: волнение

• French: tumulte
• German: Erregung
• Russian: смяте́ние

stir (uncountable)

1. (slang) Jail; prison.

   He's going to be spendin' maybe ten years in stir.

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794 ↗, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hwptej;view=1up;seq=5 page 01]:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.