Word Meaning

in definition and meaning

prep. The specific signification of in is situation or place with respect to surrounding, environment, encompassment, etc. It is used with verbs signifying being, resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part. In its different applications, it approaches some of the meanings of, and sometimes is interchangeable with, within, into, on, at, of, and among.
prep. With reference to space or place; as, he lives in Boston; he traveled in Italy; castles in the air.
prep. With reference to circumstances or conditions; as, he is in difficulties; she stood in a blaze of light.
prep. With reference to a whole which includes or comprises the part spoken of; as, the first in his family; the first regiment in the army.
prep. With reference to physical surrounding, personal states, etc., abstractly denoted; as, I am in doubt; the room is in darkness; to live in fear.
prep. With reference to character, reach, scope, or influence considered as establishing a limitation; as, to be in one's favor.
prep. With reference to movement or tendency toward a certain limit or environment; -- sometimes equivalent to into; as, to put seed in the ground; to fall in love; to end in death; to put our trust in God.
prep. With reference to a limit of time; as, in an hour; it happened in the last century; in all my life.
adv. Not out; within; inside. In, the preposition, becomes an adverb by omission of its object, leaving it as the representative of an adverbial phrase, the context indicating what the omitted object is; as, he takes in the situation (i. e., he comprehends it in his mind); the Republicans were in (i. e., in office); in at one ear and out at the other (i. e., in or into the head); his side was in (i. e., in the turn at the bat); he came in (i. e., into the house).
adv. With privilege or possession; -- used to denote a holding, possession, or seisin; as, in by descent; in by purchase; in of the seisin of her husband.
n. One who is in office; -- the opposite of out.
n. A reentrant angle; a nook or corner.
v. t. To inclose; to take in; to harvest.