Insufflate

//ˈɪnsʌfleɪt// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To breathe or blow into or on. transitive
  2. 2
    blow or breathe hard on or into wordnet
  3. 3
    To treat by blowing a gas, vapor, or powder into a body cavity. transitive
  4. 4
    treat by blowing a powder or vapor into a bodily cavity wordnet
  5. 5
    To inhale (a powder etc.). transitive

    "2001: Cocaine is usually taken by insufflating the white powdered cocaine sulphate into the nose, which leads to rapid absorption of the drug into the bloodstream. — Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 98)"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    breathe or blow onto as a ritual or sacramental act, especially so as to symbolize the action of the Holy Spirit wordnet
  2. 7
    To exhale upon baptismal water, or the one being baptised, as a ritual act. transitive

Synonyms

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Example

More examples

"2001: Cocaine is usually taken by insufflating the white powdered cocaine sulphate into the nose, which leads to rapid absorption of the drug into the bloodstream. — Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 98)"

Etymology

First attested in 1670; borrowed from Latin īnsufflātus, perfect passive participle of īnsufflō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)) from in- + sufflō (“to blow on”). Cognate with French insuffler.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.