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# stir

«stir» in Mova's school dictionary: **to move a spoon or stick round and round in a liquid or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (stir, stirs, stirred, stirring); noun (a stir)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To stir is to move a spoon or stick round and round in a liquid or mixture to mix it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#m1)

2) To stir can mean to move slightly: The baby stirred in her sleep. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#m2)

3) A stir is excitement or trouble among people: The news caused a stir. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#m3)

4) To stir up means to cause trouble or strong feelings. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In cooking and science lessons, stirring helps a solid like sugar or salt dissolve faster in water, and mixes ingredients evenly. In stories, a character stirring means waking or moving; «stirring up trouble» means causing arguments on purpose. Phrases: stir in, stir up, cause a stir, stir-fry.

### examples

- Stir the soup with a wooden spoon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x1)
- Stirring helps the sugar dissolve. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x2)
- Stir the paint before you use it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x3)
- The cat stirred and opened one eye. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x4)
- The new pupil caused quite a stir. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x5)
- Do not stir up trouble in the playground. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x6)
- We made a vegetable stir-fry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x7)
- Stir in the eggs slowly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x8)
- She was afraid, and didn't stir. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/#x9)

### note

Past: stirred, stirring (double r). Stirring does not make things dissolve that cannot dissolve (sand), it only speeds it up. Be careful stirring hot pans: use a long spoon and keep the handle turned in.

### In the corpora

- [Toad: «Glorious, stirring sight! ...](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/32-willows-ch2-part4-the-wreck-and-the-new-craze/20/)
- [But when the Magician asks for a Magic, Pau Amma can only stir up the sea.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/91-justso-crab-2-pau-amma-loses-his-shell/8/)
- [Heat, stirring and small grains all make dissolving faster, which is why loose sugar vanishes before a sugar cube does.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/6-mixing-and-dissolving/4/)
- [Small grains dissolve faster than a lump, because they have more surface for the water to touch; stirring helps too.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/6-mixing-and-dissolving/11/)
- [And ice cream feels smooth because it is stirred while freezing, keeping its ice crystals tiny.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/22-milk-cheese-and-yoghurt/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «stir» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stir/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.