n.
- the capacity to have an effect on the character or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.
▸a person or thing with such a capacity.
- the power arising out of status, contacts, or wealth.
- Physics, archaic electrical or magnetic induction.
v.
have an influence on.
Phrase
- under the influence
informal affected by alcoholic drink.
Derivative
- influenceable adj.
- influencer n.
Etymology
ME (orig. in the sense ‘influx’ and, in astrology, ‘the flowing in of ethereal fluid’): from OFr., or from med. L. influentia ‘inflow’, from L. influere, from in- ‘into’ + fluere ‘to flow’.
