Forms: see STIR v. [f. the verb. ONorthumbrian had ʓestir (only once, glossing actio in Rit. Dunelm. 187). The cognate ON. styr-r masc. (see STIR v.) may possibly be in part the source of the Sc. and northern uses, which (in the β forms) are recorded from the 14th c.] The action or an act of stirring, in various senses.
1. Movement, considered in contrast to or as an interruption of rest or stillness; slight or momentary movement; movement of disturbance, agitation. († In quot. 1589, motion in general.) On the stir (rare): astir, stirring.
α. 1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 100. At stur of euery mouse.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. iii. (Arb.), 81. Some [words] aske longer, some shorter time to be vttered in, and so, by the Philosophers definition, stirre is the true measure of time.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 92. Heterogeneous things, upon their meeting, ordinarily cause that stir which is thought to have great influence upon vegetation.
1803. Southey, Inchcape Rock, 1. No stir in the air, no stir in the sea.
1805. Wordsw., Waggoner, i. 22. Hush, there is some one on the stir! ’Tis Benjamin the Waggoner.
a. 1821. Keats, Hyperion, I. 7. No stir of air was there.
1845. Browning, Time’s Revenges, 58. The stir Of shadow round her mouth.
1885. Stevenson, Child’s Gard. Verses, 14. Not a stir of child or mouse.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, iii. 32. Presently there was a stir at the door, and Cornish entered the large room.
β. c. 1470. [see 4].
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., Fox, Wolf & Cadger, 116. I trow ȝe haif bene tussillit with sum tyke, That garris ȝow ly sa still withouttin steir.
2. Active or energetic movement of a number of persons (or animals); bustle, activity. (In some cases hardly distinguishable from 3.)
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXXVIII. iii. As one who free from strife, And sturr of mortall life Among the dead at rest doth sitt.
1634. Milton, Comus, 5. Above the smoak and stirr of this dim spot, Which men call Earth.
1712–3. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 21 March. Company will come, and a stir, and a clutter.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 739. The stir of commerce.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xxv. III. 375. The stir of preparation immediately began.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, x. By this time the stir of the Festa was felt even in the narrowest side-streets.
3. Commotion, disturbance, tumult; general excitement; fuss. Now usually with a; the plural, now rare, was formerly common, esp. in the sense ‘publick disturbance, tumultuous disorder’ (J.), riot, insurrection. Phrase, † to keep a stir.
α. sing. a. 1547. Surrey, Æneid, IV. (1557), G ij. Her sister Anne, spritelesse for dread to heare This fearefull sturre, with nailes gan teare her face.
1549. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. II. 168. If you forsake to come to this … peaxable agrement,… the inconveniences which may ensue upon stirre must grow of yow.
a. 1557. Mrs. M. Basset, trans. More’s Treat. Passion, M.’s Wks. 1390/1. Sundry matters as in such a sodain styrre very sore perplexed theim.
1579. J. Field, trans. Calvin’s 4 Serm., i. 8. But what a blundering and stirre keepe they heere?
1629. Hobbes, Thucyd., II. 112. Being then at their wits end, they kept a stirre at Pericles.
1655. Baxter, Quaker’s Catech., 19. Your Prater also made a stirre with me for calling the sacred Languages the Originall.
1671. Trenchfield, Cap Gray Hairs (1688), 17. There are many things we make no small stir about.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., I. 90. Glaucus, who used to say, that Statesmen and Lawgivers may keep a stir about right and wrong, just and unjust, but that, in truth [etc.].
1782. Cowper, Mut. Forb., 21. For one slight trespass all this stir?
1802. Wordsw., To Small Celandine, 15. I’m as great as they, I trow, Since the day I found thee out, Little Flower!—I’ll make a stir, Like a sage astronomer.
1847. G. P. R. James, Convict, xiv. The Chartists are making a great stir about here just now.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, viii. He always came to the front when there was any stir in the Lambert affair.
pl. 1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 86. The Leauetenaunt asked hym what al these sturres and tumultes ment.
1575–85. Sandys, Serm., v. 85. His Apostles are not breeders of stirs and mutinies, they are messengers sent to make peace.
1650. S. Clarke, Eccl. Hist., I. (1654), 26. They never intended any stirs or rebellions against the Empire.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect., Modena, 209. Great Stirs between the Popes and the old Dukes of Ferrara.
1847. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, iv. He complained so seldom, indeed, of such stirs as these, that I really thought him not vindictive.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., IV. xx. 531. The stirs [ed. 1871 commotions] which were soon to arise on the side of Maine, Anjou, and Brittany.
1896. Crockett, Grey Man, xl. 268. No longer … thrusting myself into all stirs and quarrels up to the elbows.
β. 1375, c. 1375, a. 1568. [see 4].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7398. The stere was full stithe; þere starf mony knightes.
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., x. 196. Brother, allace, had ȝe bene heir, I had not cum in all this sturt and steir.
1728. Ramsay, Step-daughter, 8. My Step-dame … keeps the hale House in a steer.
1873. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, vi. Annie’s grandmother, a bairn then, was in the thick of the steer.
1912. R. M. Fergusson, Ochil Fairy T., 45. A terrible steer got up among the ponies, that began jumping about like mad beasts.
† 4. On steer (cf. senses 1–3): astir, in motion; in a state of commotion or tumult. Sc. Obs. (see ASTEER adv.)
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VII. 344. Swa that the host wes all on steir.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xi. (Simon & J.), 343. Nere al þe land of babylone one stere mad þai.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 411. He saw na thing on steir.
a. 1568. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), ii. 112. Syne eftir denner raiss the din, And all the toun on steir.
5. fig. Movement of feeling or thought; emotion; impulse; intellectual activity.
1563. J. Man, trans. Musculus’ Commpl., 438 b. Thys sayeth Lactance. By whyche wordes he dothe not take from God the commotion and sturre of anger, but that onelye whyche is ioyned with fault.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. iii. 12. He did keepe The Decke, with Gloue, or Hat, or Handkerchife, Still wauing, as the fits and stirres of ’s mind Could best expresse how slow his Soule sayl’d on.
1820. Keats, Isabella, i. They could not in the self-same mansion dwell Without some stir of heart.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 409. In this, as in every great stir of the human mind.
1878. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxiv. 4. God’s power of creating a stir in lethargic minds.
1899. Bridges, New Poems, viii. (1912), 339. Fair Thy dreams … Yea, godlike when thou hast the skill To steal a stir of the heavenly thrill.
6. An act of stirring something, e.g., a liquid, etc.; a poke, jog; fig. a rousing.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 71. Public opinion had received a great stir.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. ‘Eh, Arthur?’ said Tom, giving him a stir with his foot.
1904. Daily News, 2 Dec., 6. Each of the family took a stir…. A Christmas pudding required much stirring.
