Other forms: stirred, stirring, stirs
To stir is to move a spoon round in a liquid to mix it. Stir the soup, stir well, stir in the flour.
Stir in means to add while stirring, and stir up means to cause trouble deliberately: stir up trouble, stir up feeling. On its own, to stir also means to move slightly — nobody stirred, the curtains stirred — and to wake: he stirred at about six. As a noun, a stir is a commotion: it caused quite a stir. Note stir-fry; and stir-crazy, meaning restless from being shut in.
1verbstirTo move a spoon round in a liquid to mix it.
“Stir it until the sugar has completely gone.”
Patternstir + noun (the sauce, your tea) · stir in / into · stir well / gently / constantly · give it a stir
2verbslightlyTo move slightly, or to wake.
“The baby stirred in her cot but didn't wake up.”
3nouncommotionA commotion or excitement.
“The announcement caused quite a stir.”
stir is a moving or mixing.
STIR → the spoon going round like a clock hand
The spoon goes round and round the pot like the hand of a clock gone mad, and the soup turns with it: you are stirring.
Old English styrian meant to move or agitate, and it is related to storm — both come from a root about disturbance. Stirring a pot and a storm at sea are the same idea at different scales.
Middle English
stiren
English, today
stir
From Middle English stiren. From Middle English stiren, sturien, steren, from Old English styrian (“to be in motion, move, agitate, stir, disturb, trouble”), from Proto-Germanic sturiz (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), related to Proto-West Germanic staurijan (“to destroy, disturb”). Cognate with Old Norse styrr (“turmoil, noise, confusion”), German stören (“to disturb”), Dutch storen (“to disturb”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA