Inspiration

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Inspiration \In`spi*ra"tion\, n. [F. inspiration, L. inspiratio.
     See {Inspire}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. The act of inspiring or breathing in; breath; specif.
        (Physiol.), the drawing of air into the lungs,
        accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls


        and flattening of the diaphragm; -- the opposite of
        expiration.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating
        influence upon the intellect or emotions; the result of
        such influence which quickens or stimulates; as, the
        inspiration of occasion, of art, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their
              death have good inspirations.         --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Theol.) A supernatural divine influence on the prophets,
        apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified
        to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a
        supernatural influence which qualifies men to receive and
        communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. --2
                                                    Tim. iii. 16.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The age which we now live in is not an age of
              inspiration and impulses.             --Sharp.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Plenary inspiration} (Theol.), that kind of inspiration
        which excludes all defect in the utterance of the inspired
        message.
  
     {Verbal inspiration} (Theol.), that kind of inspiration which
        extends to the very words and forms of expression of the
        divine message.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  inspiration
       n 1: arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or
            creativity
       2: a product of your creative thinking and work; "he had little
          respect for the inspirations of other artists"; "after
          years of work his brainchild was a tangible reality" [syn:
           {brainchild}]
       3: a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem
       4: (theology) a special influence of a divinity on the minds of
          human beings; "they believe that the books of Scripture
          were written under divine guidance" [syn: {divine guidance}]
       5: arousing to a particular emotion or action [syn: {stirring}]
       6: the act of inhaling; the drawing in of air (or other gases)
          as in breathing [syn: {inhalation}, {aspiration}, {breathing
          in}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  236 Moby Thesaurus words for "inspiration":
     Apollo, Apollo Musagetes, Aqua-Lung, Bragi, Calliope,
     Castilian Spring, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Geist, Helicon, Hippocrene,
     Melpomene, Muse, Parnassus, Pierian Spring, Pierides, Polyhymnia,
     Terpsichore, Thalia, a priori knowledge, afflatus, air current,
     ambition, animating spirit, animation, animus, anticipation,
     apocalypse, ardor, arousal, artificial respiration,
     artistic imagination, aspiration, assurance, asthmatic wheeze,
     automatic response, awakening, basis, blind impulse, brain wave,
     brainchild, brainstorm, brainwave, breath, breath of air,
     breathing, bright idea, bright thought, brilliant idea,
     broken wind, buddhi, calling, cause, clairvoyance, conception,
     consideration, cough, creative imagination, creative power,
     creative thought, creativity, crosscurrent, current,
     current of air, daemon, daimonion, demon, direct apprehension,
     direct communication, divine afflatus, divine inspiration,
     divine revelation, downdraft, draft, drive, ebullience, education,
     elan, emboldening, encouragement, energy, enlightenment,
     enlivenment, enthusiasm, epiphany, esemplastic imagination,
     esemplastic power, exhalation, exhilaration, expiration,
     exsufflation, fall wind, fancy, feeling, fire, fire of genius,
     firing, flash, fleeting impulse, flow of air, following wind, gasp,
     genius, goal, good idea, ground, guide, guiding light,
     guiding star, gulp, gusto, gut response, hack, head wind,
     heartening, hiccup, ideal, illumination, immediate cognition,
     impulse, incentive, incitement, indraft, infection, inflow,
     influence, infusion, inhalation, inhalator, inhalement, inrush,
     insight, inspiriting, inspiritment, instinct, insufflation,
     intention, intuition, intuitionism, intuitive reason,
     intuitiveness, intuitivism, involuntary impulse, iron lung,
     jetstream, katabatic wind, knowledge without thought, lodestar,
     mainspring, matter, monsoon, motive, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
     movement of air, moving spirit, muse, mystical experience,
     mysticism, mythicization, mythification, mythopoeia,
     natural impulse, notion, oxygen mask, oxygen tent, pant, passion,
     poesy, poetic genius, poetic imagination, precognition, principle,
     prophecy, provocation, puff, quick hunch, reason, reassurance,
     reflex, respiration, revelation, sake, satori, score, scuba,
     second sight, second-sightedness, shaping imagination, sigh,
     sixth sense, sneeze, sniff, sniffle, snore, snoring, snuff,
     snuffle, soul, source, sparkle, spirit, spring, spur, sternutation,
     stertor, stimulation, stimulus, stream, stream of air,
     subconscious knowledge, subconscious perception, suck, sucking,
     suction, sudden thought, suggestion, suspiration, tail wind,
     talent, the Muses, theophania, theophany, theopneustia,
     theopneusty, ulterior motive, undercurrent, unmediated perception,
     updraft, urge, vigor, vision, vocation, wheeze, wind, zeal
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Inspiration
     that extraordinary or supernatural divine influence vouchsafed
     to those who wrote the Holy Scriptures, rendering their writings
     infallible. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God"
     (R.V., "Every scripture inspired of God"), 2 Tim. 3:16. This is
     true of all the "sacred writings," not in the sense of their
     being works of genius or of supernatural insight, but as
     "theopneustic," i.e., "breathed into by God" in such a sense
     that the writers were supernaturally guided to express exactly
     what God intended them to express as a revelation of his mind
     and will. The testimony of the sacred writers themselves
     abundantly demonstrates this truth; and if they are infallible
     as teachers of doctrine, then the doctrine of plenary
     inspiration must be accepted. There are no errors in the Bible
     as it came from God, none have been proved to exist.
     Difficulties and phenomena we cannot explain are not errors. All
     these books of the Old and New Testaments are inspired. We do
     not say that they contain, but that they are, the Word of God.
     The gift of inspiration rendered the writers the organs of God,
     for the infallible communication of his mind and will, in the
     very manner and words in which it was originally given.
     
       As to the nature of inspiration we have no information. This
     only we know, it rendered the writers infallible. They were all
     equally inspired, and are all equally infallible. The
     inspiration of the sacred writers did not change their
     characters. They retained all their individual peculiarities as
     thinkers or writers. (See {BIBLE}; WORD OF {GOD}.)