1. An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli: the spawning instinct in salmon; altruistic instincts in social animals.
2. A powerful motivation or impulse.
3. An innate capability or aptitude: an instinct for tact and diplomacy.
1. Deeply filled or imbued: words instinct with love.
2. Obsolete. Impelled from within.
instinct
• Natural inward impulse; unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, whether bodily, or
mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or object to be accomplished.
• An instinct is a propensity prior to experience, and
independent of instructions. --Paley.
• An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action,
independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads. --Whately.
An instinct is an agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work of
intelligence and
knowledge. --Sir W. Hamilton.
• By a divine instinct,
men's minds mistrust Ensuing dangers. --Shak.
• The natural, unreasoning, impulse by which an animal is guided to the performance of any action, without of improvement in the method.
• The resemblance between what originally was a habit, and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished. --Darwin.
• A natural aptitude or
knack; a predilection; as, an instinct for order; to be modest by instinct.