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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Institute

In’sti-tūte, v. t.

verbtransitive

(30), v. t. [imp. & p. p. INSTITUTED; p. pr. & vb. n. INSTITUTING.] [Lat. instituere, institutum, from in and statuere, to cause to stand, to set, from stare, statum, to stand; It. instituire, Pr. & Sp. instituitir, Fr. instituer.]

Sense 1. To set up; to establish; to erect; to appoint; to ordain; as, to institute laws, rules, &c.

We institute your Grace To be our regent in these parts of France. Shak.

Sense 2. To originate and establish; to found; as, to institute a new order of nobility; to institute a court.

Sense 3. To begin; to commence; to set in operation; as, to institute an inquiry; to institute a suit.

And haply institute A course of learning and ingenious studies. Shak.

Sense 4. To ground or establish in principles; to educate; to instruct. [Obs.]

If children were early instituted, knowledge would insensibly insinuate itself. Decay of Piety.

Sense 5. (Eccl. Law.) To invest with the spiritual part of a benefice, or the care of souls. Blackstone.

Ĭn’sti-tūte, n.

noun

n. [Lat. institutum, Fr. institut, It. & Sp. instituto. See supra.] 1. Any thing instituted or formally established; established law; settled order. Thou art pale in mighty studies grown To make the Stoics’ institutes thy own. Dryden.

  1. That which is established as authoritative, or worthy of observance; precept; maxim; principle.
  2. An institution; a literary and philosophical society;—applied particularly to the principal society of this kind in France.
  3. (pl.) (a.) A book of elements or principles; particularly, a work containing the principles of jurisprudence; as, the Institutes of Gaius or Caius, of Justinian and Theophilus, in the Roman law, and of Lord Coke in the common law. (b.) A department of medical instruction which treats of the principles of medicine; physiology applied to the practice of medicine. (Scotch Law.) (c.) The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation. Tomlins.