Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IN-SIN'U-ATE, v.t. [Fr. insinuer; L. insinuo; in and sinus, the bosom, a bay, inlet or recess.]

1. To introduce gently, or into a narrow passage; to wind in. Water insinuates itself into the crevices of rocks.
2. To push or work one's self into favor; to introduce by slow, gentle or artful means. He insinuated himself into the very good grace of the duke of Buckingham. Clarendon.
3. To hint; to suggest by remote allusion. And all the fictions bards pursue, / Do but insinuate what's true. Swift.
4. To instill; to infuse gently; to introduce artfully. All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions and thereby mislead the judgment. Locke.