institute

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnstɪt(j)uːt/

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From French institut, from Middle French, from Latin īnstitūtum.

institute (plural institutes)

1. An organization founded to promote a cause

   I work in a medical research institute.

2. An institution of learning; a college, especially for technical subjects
3. The building housing such an institution
4. (obsolete) The act of instituting; institution.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     water sanctified by Christ's institute

5. (obsolete) That which is instituted, established, or fixed, such as a law, habit, or custom.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Burke

     They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     to make the Stoics' institutes thy own

6. (law, Scotland) The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Tomlins to this entry?)

• educational institute
• research institute
• academic institute

From Middle English, from Latin īnstitūtus, past participle of īnstituō (“I set up, place upon, purpose, begin, institute”), from in (“in, on”) + statuō (“set up, establish”).

institute (third-person singular simple present institutes, present participle instituting, simple past and past participle instituted)

1. (transitive) To begin or initiate (something); to found.

   He instituted the new policy of having children walk through a metal detector to enter school.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     And haply institute / A course of learning and ingenious studies.

   • 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence:

     Whenever any from of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To train, instruct.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     Publius was the first that ever instituted the Souldier to manage his armes by dexteritie and skil, and joyned art unto vertue, not for the use of private contentions, but for the wars and Roman peoples quarrels.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dr. H. More

     If children were early instituted, knowledge would insensibly insinuate itself.

3. To nominate; to appoint.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     We institute your Grace / To be our regent in these parts of France.

4. (ecclesiastical, law) To invest with the spiritual charge of a benefice, or the care of souls.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blackstone to this entry?)

institute (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Established; organized; founded.
   • Robynson (More's Utopia)

     They have but few laws. For to a people so instruct and institute, very few to suffice.

• institution
• institutional

• institute in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• institute in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• institute at OneLook Dictionary Search

institūte

1. vocative masculine singular of institūtus

• institute in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)