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Webster 1913 Edition


Inwit

In′wit

,
Noun.
Inward sense; mind; understanding; conscience.
[Obs.]
Wyclif.

Webster 1828 Edition


Inwit

IN'WIT

,
Noun.
[in and wit.] Mind; understanding.

Definition 2024


inwit

inwit

English

Noun

inwit (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Inward knowledge or understanding.
    • "Will it make you happy?" / "Probably not," Kai said irritably. "Inwit tells me that you're trouble from the beginning." Midori Snyder, Sadar's Keep, A Tom Doherty Associates Book, New York, 1991
  2. (obsolete) Conscience; inward sense of morality.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience. James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922
    • "I knew that was so. Every time that inwit twanged -- I have conscience like you, reverend sir!" -- Marcia Davenport, Constant Image, 1960
    • (Can we date this quote?) Inwit, a term for conscience, suggests the inner senses and interior sensibility, which accords nicely with the current state of the senses under the regime of electric technologies. Marshall McLuhan, The Agenbite of Outwit, 1998
    • "What's the matter? Can't a ballplayer - an ex-ballplayer - have a literate vocabulary?" / "Sure. But 'qualm?' " / "How about 'the aginbite of inwit' then?" Paul Di Filippo, Seeing is believing, Fantasy & Science Fiction: Apr 2003:. Vol. 104, Iss. 4; pg. 131

Derived terms

  • angel's inwit