install

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install

  • /ɪnˈstɔːl/ UK
  • /ɪnˈstoːl/ Australia, British, New Zealand, Southern, Standard
  • /ɪnˈstɔl/ US
  • /ɪnˈstɑl/ US, cot caught merger
  • /ɪnˈstɒl/ Canada
  • /ɪnˈstɔl/ Scotland

Rhymes with -ɔːl

Where it comes from

From Middle English installen, from Old French installer, from Medieval Latin īnstallō (“to install, put in place, establish”), from in- + stallum (“stall”), from Frankish *stall (“stall, position, place”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz (“place, position”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel-, *stAlǝn-, *stAlǝm- (“stem, trunk”). Cognate with Old High German stal (“location, stall”), Old English steall (“position, stall”), Old English onstellan (“to institute, create, originate, establish, give the example of”), Middle High German anstalt (“institute”), German anstellen (“to conduct, employ”), German einstellen (“to set, adjust, position”), Dutch aanstellen (“to appoint, commission, institute”), Dutch instellen (“to set up, establish”). More at in, stall.

verb installs · installing · installed · instal · enstall

  1. transitive To connect, set up or prepare something for use Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
  2. transitive To transfer software onto a device's permanent storage and put it in a state where it is ready to be run when needed, usually decompressing it if necessary and performing any necessary pre-first-run configuration. I haven't installed the new operating system yet because of all the bugs.
  3. transitive To admit formally into an office, rank or position. He was installed as Chancellor of the University.
  4. reflexive, sometimes, transitive To establish or settle in. I installed myself in my usual chair by the fire.

noun installs · instal · enstall

  1. informal An installation: the process of installing a software application. The install takes a long time, but you can run it in the background while working on other things.
  2. informal An installation: a software application that has been installed. I've customized my local install; the out-of-the-box version looks a bit different.

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