Other forms: infused, infusing, infuses
To infuse is to soak in liquid to draw out flavour, or to fill with a quality. Infuse the tea, infused oil, infused with meaning.
The cooking sense is gentle and slow — infusing draws flavour out without boiling, which is what tea is. The figurative sense takes with and means filling something through: infused with energy. In medicine, an infusion is fluid given into a vein. Note that the Latin means to pour into.
1verbinfuseTo soak in liquid to draw out flavour.
“Infuse the mint leaves in hot water for a few minutes to make fresh tea.”
2verbfillTo fill something with a quality.
“The new coach infused the team with confidence.”
infuse is a steeping or filling.
Latin infundere is in plus fundere, to pour. Found, fuse and confound come from the same pouring.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰewd-
Latin
infusus
Middle English
infusen
English, today
infuse
From Middle English infusen, from Latin infusus, from infundo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA