implant

implant, inculcate, instill are comparable when they mean to introduce into the mind.

Implant usually implies teaching, and it stresses the fixedness or permanency of what has been taught

{

the teacher, the parent, or the friend can often do much to implant this conviction— Eliot

}

{

implanting in their minds doubts of the political realism of their American friends— Brogan

}

Inculcate implies persistent or repeated endeavor with the intent to impress firmly on the mind

{

had sedulously inculcated into the mind of her son . . . maxims of worldly wisdom— Edgeworth

}

{

skillful, conscientious schoolmistresses whose lives were spent in trying to inculcate real knowledge— Grandgent

}

{

whatever happened, Newland would continue to inculcate in Dallas the same principles and prejudices which had shaped his parents' lives— Wharton

}

Instill carries the implication of a gradual and gentle method of imparting knowledge; it usually suggests either a teaching that extends over a long period of time (as from infancy to adolescence) or a pupil that cannot, because of age, lack of background, or the like, take in at once what is taught

{

those principles my parents instilled into my unwary understanding— Browne

}

{

the Viceroy plumed himself on the way in which he had instilled notions of reticence into his staff— Kipling

}

{

it would be useless, in early years, to attempt to instill a stoic contempt for death— Russell

}

Analogous words: *infuse, imbue, inoculate, ingrain, leaven: impregnate, saturate, impenetrate, penetrate, *permeate, pervade