insinuating

Verb

insinuate (third-person singular simple present insinuates, present participle insinuating, simple past and past participle insinuated)

1. To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.
   • She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.

   Synonyms:

   advert, allude, hint, imply, indicate, inkle, intimate, moot, refer, signify

2. (rare) To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.
   • Water will insinuate itself into Flints through certain imperceptible Cracks1728-1729, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England
3. (broadly, figuratively) To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.
   • All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

See all 4 meanings of insinuate