FluentPlex

instruct

/ɪnˈstɹʌkt/ verb B2
  1. To teach by giving instructions. (transitive) · Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.
  2. To tell (someone) what they must or should do. (transitive) · Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"· The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy.
  3. To give (one's own lawyer) legal instructions as to how they should act in relation to a particular issue; thereby formally appointing them as one's own legal representative in relation to it. (transitive) · If you're not careful, I'm going to instruct a solicitor over this.

He/she/it instructs · Past instructed · Past participle instructed · -ing form instructing

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Verb forms

Base form
instruct
He/she/it
instructs
Past
instructed
Past participle
instructed
-ing form
instructing

From the library

She inquired into Charlotte’s domestic concerns familiarly and minutely, and gave her a great deal of advice as to the management of them all; told her how everything ought to be regulated in so small a family as hers, and instructed her as to the care of her cows and her poultry.
Pride and Prejudice, p. 190 · B2
We all love to instruct, though we can teach only what is not worth knowing.
Pride and Prejudice, p. 323 · B2
More than a year had been consumed in this undertaking, the only tools for which had been a chisel, a knife, and a wooden lever; Faria still continuing to instruct Dantès by conversing with him, sometimes in one language, sometimes in another; at others, relating to him the history of nations and great men who from time to time have risen to fame and trodden the path of glory.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 175 · C1
And who instructed you, eh?”
The Return of Sherlock Holmes, p. 107 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.