How to use instruct in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective
Instruct means to teach by giving instructions. Example: “Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.”
Examples of instruct by meaning
verbTo teach by giving instructions.
- Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.
verbTo tell (someone) what they must or should do.
- Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise"
- The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy.
- Observing that the Christ Child’s nose was running, she deftly wiped it; then she held the handkerchief in place, while instructing him to “blow.”1989, John Irving, chapter 5, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: Ballantine, published 1997, page 195
verbTo give (one's own lawyer) legal instructions as to how they should act in relation to a particular issue; thereby...
- If you're not careful, I'm going to instruct a solicitor over this.
More sentences with instruct
- I have placed both of the ads in the newspaper as instructed.From the entry ad
- They instructed the upholsterer to do the sofa in cinnamon and the ottoman in umber.From the entry cinnamon
- The motivational speaker not only instructed but also entertained the audience.From the entry entertain
- This function instructs the hard drive to seek to a specified track.From the entry seek
- A lawyer cannot act until they have been formally instructed by their client.From the entry act
- The soldiers were instructed to take out the enemy base by any means necessary.From the entry take out
- I instructed the barber to give me a shave.From the entry shave
- He instructed us in that booming, authoritative voice of his.From the entry authoritative
- Dentists would always instruct, say aah!From the entry aah
- We then instructed the trainees to watch back the key training videos for the task. We allotted for the several hours that it would take to watch them all back.From the entry watch back
- When a driver is told to 'box, box', they're being instructed to make a pitstop.2024 April 3, Joe Holding, Rebecca Braybrook, “What do DRS, black and white flag, porpoising and more mean? F1 terms explained”, in…. From the entry box
- All the patients were instructed to keep awake with the maximum intercuspation during the CBCT scanning.2015 August 8, “Three-Dimensional Evaluation of the Upper Airway Morphological Changes in Growing Patients with Skeletal Class III…. From the entry intercuspation
- The consumers were instructed that they could 'hold, touch, feel or squeeze the material in any manner'.2008, E. Wilusz, Military Textiles, page 86. From the entry handfeel
- Greenspan said there was no evidence that his client ever instructed Mr.2007 June 20, Richard Siklos, “Black’s Lawyers Hammer Former Partner’s Testimony”, in New York Times. From the entry noncompetition
- As soon as your point person begins to deviate, instruct him to correct his direction.2007, Martin Volken, Scott Schell, Margaret Wheeler, Backcountry Skiing: Skills for Ski Touring and Ski Mountaineering, →ISBN. From the entry point person
- In using this system, absentee voters were instructed to mark their ballots with number two pencils.2006, Barry H. Weinberg, The Resolution of Election Disputes: Legal Principles That Control Election, page 128. From the entry number 2 pencil
- The Kingpin had instructed his Kossack cultists to support Brown's Democratic primary rival, Paul Hackett.2006 June 25, David Brooks, “Respect Must Be Paid”, in The New York Times. From the entry Kossack
- The loudspeaker voice instructs passengers to "Mind the gap": the boundary between train and platform.2005, Gillie Bolton, Reflective Practice: Writing And Professional Development, →ISBN, page xv. From the entry mind
- Give each participant a soccer ball and instruct them to dribble their ball around the coned area.2005, Anthony Dowson, Keith E. J. Morris, “Soccer Games”, in Fun and Games: 100 Sport-related Activities for Ages 5-16, Human Kinetics…. From the entry coned
- The bank receives a payment order instructing the bank to pay Creditor X.2003, Paul S. Turner, Diane B. Wunnicke, Managing the Risks of Payment Systems, page 120. From the entry withdrawable
- James was instructed to monitor his thoughts during rugby practices, matches and nonrugby events.2002, Bruce D. Hale, David J. Collins, Rugby tough. From the entry nonrugby
- Each girl is instructed by a mentrix (nacimbusa, plural banacimbusa), who is helped by other women.1999, Richard Fardon, Wim van Binsbergen, Rijk van Dijk, editors, Modernity on a Shoestring: Dimensions of Globalization, Consumption and…. From the entry mentrix
- The jury was instructed to consider only those sentencing factors it deemed "applicable."1993, People v. Montielhttps://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/4th/5/877.html. From the entry misargument
- Demonstrators were instructed to leave their passes at their homes and present themselves passless at police stations.1987, Michael Dingake, My Fight Against Apartheid, page 57. From the entry passless
- The site of the capsule’s interment will be marked by a bronze plaque which instructs future Ste.1985 November 14, “Capsule buried Saturday”, in The Daily Journal, volume 55, number 225, St. Francois County, Mo., page 1B, column 5. From the entry Ste. Genevievian
- I do not go to movies to be harranged or directly instructed.1981 December 19, Nancy Walker, “Taxi, Shmaxi!”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 22, page 13. From the entry harrang
- Two or three months ago I instructed the garage to recharge my battery.1928, Advertising & Selling, volume 12, M.C. Robbins, page 38. From the entry recharge one's battery
- On National Security Education Day in April, students in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, were instructed on how to report suspicious activity.2022 August 6, Chris Buckley, Steven Lee Myers, “In Turbulent Times, Xi Builds a Security Fortress for China, and Himself”, in The New…. From the entry Hohhot
- The Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Leader of the House has instructed the Pofma Office to do so.2022 February 12, Sue-Ann Tan, “Pofma office issues correction direction to Wake Up, Singapore over COP statements”, in Straits Times. From the entry POFMA
- We’d like to believe that suffering instructs and ennobles.2020, Francine Prose, “Has Trump learned anything from Covid-19? Absolutely not”, in The Grauniad. From the entry ennoble
- The parent is instructed to wake the child 15 to 30 minutes before the night terror typically occurs.2017, Marie Ardill, Ashley A. Houston, Constance J. Dalenberg, “Night Terror”, in Amy Wenzel, editor, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal…. From the entry night terror
- "Get in touch with the helimen," he instructed his assistant.2015, Gennadii Ternovskii, The Crimson Beret Who Else but Us?:, page 227. From the entry heliman
- Matthew McKinnon from Unique Wines, purveyor of premium wines, will be visiting Uptown Art and instructing an introductory wine-ology class.2015 February 5, The Bellingham Herald, section “Take 5”, page 22. From the entry wine-ology
- It is doubtful you could instruct Babe Ruth into being a home run king or Usain Bolt into world’s fastest human.2014, Tom Pease, “Touring Entrepreneurship Land and Meriting Citizenship: You Can’t Give What You Don’t Have”, in Small Business Survival…. From the entry gonnabe
- After his copy had dropped, MacKenzie had gone over to the backbench and instructed them: 'Don't change a word of this.2013, Chris Horrie, Peter Chippindale, Stick It Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story of the Sun Newspaper, →ISBN. From the entry backbench
Meaning of instruct
- verb To teach by giving instructions.
- verb To tell (someone) what they must or should do.
- verb 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.
Questions about instruct in a sentence
- How do you use instruct in a sentence?
- Instruct is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture.”
- What is a short sentence with instruct?
- “Dentists would always instruct, say aah!”
- What does instruct mean?
- Instruct means to teach by giving instructions.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: instruct (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use instruct in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/instruct. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
