inspiration

Noun

inspiration (countable and uncountable, plural inspirations)

1. (uncountable) The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm, as part of the act of breathing.
   • Holonym: respiration
   • The respiratory movements are no longer normal and rhythmic acts of inspiration and exspiration, but abnormal and irregular expiratory movements1857, M. Hall [junior] editor, Prone and postival respiration in drowning and other forms of apricea, or suspended respiration

   Synonyms:

   inhalation

   Antonyms:

   expiration, exhalation

2. (countable) A single inward breath (intake of air).
   • Laughing is produced by an inspiration succeeded by a succession of short imperfect expirations.1826, John Bostock, An Elementary System of Physiology, page 220
   • One of them had a temperature of 40° cent. 104° Fahr. and 97 inspirations per minute.1838, Thomas Hodgkin, Dr. Fisher, On the influence of physical agents on life, translation of original by William Frédéric Edwards, Pouillet (Claude Servais Mathias, M.), and Luke Howard

   Synonyms:

   inhalation

   Antonyms:

   expiration, exhalation

3. 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 people to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.
   • The question, therefore, at issue is, not whether those external means be sufficient without grace and divine inspiration, for none pretends that": but, in order to hinder men from feigning or imagining an inspiration, whether it has not been God's economy, and his usual conduct to make his...1688, Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, The History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Vol.2 (1829 translation), p. 355
   • The more strongly people felt about their ideas, the more potent the demons seemed to them: Christians believed that traditional paganism, far from being the work of men, was an 'opium of the masses', pumped into the human race by the non-human demons; and one scholar even ascribed bad reviews of...1971, Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150—750, Thames & Hudson LTD, published 2013, →ISBN, page 54
4. The act or process of an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
   • She was waiting for inspiration to write a book.
   • Usage notes: In this sense, it may be followed by the adposition to in relation to the person being influenced, and for or to in relation to the idea or activity:

   Synonyms:

   afflatus, motivation, spark, flash, eureka

5. A person, object, or situation which quickens or stimulates an influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
   • The trip was an inspiration to her for writing a book.
   • She had grown accustomed to look upon Ethel as Walter's passion and inspiration: it was something far off and distant, which even she felt was sacred; but Lady Marchmont was a new rival, and come too actual, and too near.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 208–209
6. A new idea, especially one which arises suddenly and is clever or creative.
   • After an interval the Psychologist had an inspiration. "It must have gone into the past if it has gone anywhere," he said.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Inventor”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 21
   • Mrs. Balfame had an inspiration. "My God!" she exclaimed, springing to her feet, "the murderer . . . was hidden in the cellar or attic all night, all the next day! He may be here yet!"1916, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 15, in Mrs. Balfame