English

Adjective

stirring

1. invigorating or inspiring
   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     As he had said, his voice was hoarse, but he sang well enough, and it was a stirring tune, something between 'Clementine' and 'La Cucaracha'.

   • 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC:

     But Chelsea, who left Didier Drogba on the bench as coach Carlo Ancelotti favoured Fernando Torres, staged a stirring fightback to move up to fourth and keep United in their sights on a night when nothing other than victory would have kept the Blues in contention.

   • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games

     The opening crawl (and a stirring propaganda movie) informs us that “The Hunger Games” are an annual event in Panem, a North American nation divided into 12 different districts, each in service to the Capitol, a wealthy metropolis that owes its creature comforts to an oppressive dictatorship.

Verb

stirring

1. present participle of stir

Noun

stirring ‎(countable and uncountable, plural stirrings)

1. (gerund of stir) An occasion on which something stirs or is stirred
   • 2009, January 16, “Carter Dougherty”, in European Central Bank Cuts Key Rate:

     The reduction takes the central bank back to where it was in December 2005, when it began raising its key rate despite objections from some political figures and many economists about choking the early stirrings of a recovery in growth.