inject definition

English

Etymology

From Latin iniectus, injectus, participle of iniciō, injiciō (“I throw in”), from in- +‎ iaciō (“I throw”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈd͡ʒɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

inject (third-person singular simple present injects, present participle injecting, simple past and past participle injected)

1. (transitive) To push or pump (something, especially fluids) into a cavity or passage.

   The nurse injected a painkilling drug into the veins of my forearm.

2. (transitive) To introduce (something) suddenly or violently.

   Punk injected a much-needed sense of urgency into the British music scene.

   • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

     Caesar also, then hatching tyranny, injected the same scrupulous demurs.

3. (transitive) To administer an injection to (someone or something), especially of medicine or drugs.

   Now lie back while we inject you with the anesthetic.

   to inject the blood vessels

4. (intransitive) To take or be administered something by means of injection, especially medicine or drugs.

   It's been a week since I stopped injecting, and I'm still in withdrawal.

5. (transitive, computing) To introduce (code) into an existing program or its memory space, often without tight integration and sometimes through a security vulnerability.
   • 1996 November 11, David Taillé <taille@calva.net>, “Getting Process information”, in comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <MPG.cf15f0a5cfb22c3989699@news.calvacom.fr>:

     Yes, you'll have to use CreateRemoteThread to "inject code" if you want information like the current directory of a process (at least on NT 3.5x).

   • 1999 August 23, Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein <osvaldo@visionnaire.com.br>, “Java is Going to Be the Death of Java”, in comp.lang.java.advocacy‎^[2] (Usenet), message-ID <001b01beed13$76a66350$450510ac@mde.emn.fr>:

     As soon as a virus programmer discovers that some popular ActiveX thing has a bug that can be exploited, e.g. with controlled crashes to inject code, it's going to be a disaster.

   • 2003, Ryan Russell, “The Thief No One Saw”, in Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box‎^[3], →ISBN, page 146:

     A quick test to see if I can inject SQL data is to enter my username and password as 'a.

   • 2007, Jeremiah Grossman, Robert Hansen, “XSS Theory”, in XSS Attacks: Cross-Site Scripting Exploits and Defense‎^[4], →ISBN, page 86:

     DOM XSS is an unusual method for injecting JavaScript into a user's browser.

   • 2010, Andrew Moore, “AJAX Explained: What It Does and Why You Should Consider Using It”, in Visual Studio 2010 All-in-One for Dummies‎^[5], →ISBN, page 410:

     The AJAX controls inject the appropriate JavaScript code into the HTML output stream without you needing to code any JavaScript yourself.

6. (obsolete, transitive) To cast or throw; used with on.
   • 1725, Homer, “Book XI”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     And mound inject on mound.

7. (transitive) To introduce or add (something that is different or foreign).

   inject something into orbit

   inject some spice into my life

   • 1960, Antonio Candido Pedroso Gamitto, King Kazembe and the Marave, Cheva, Bisa, Bemba, Lunda, and Other Peoples of Southern Africa, page 10:

     This passage seems unfortunately to have set the tone, among English writers, for comment on the expedition, and quite wrongly since Gamitto used his donkey to inject some much needed light relief among the difficulties and privations of the journey.

   • 2009, Ilsa Evans, The Family Tree, page 25:

     Although you must admit that'd inject some spice into my life.

   • 2019, Anja Nakarada Pecujlic, Matteo Tugnoli·, Promoting Productive Cooperation Between Space Lawyers and Engineers, page 132:

     Launchers can inject in orbit several satellites per launch since LEO and MEO satellites are usually smaller than GEO satellites.

   • 2021, Colin Baker, Wayne E. Wright, Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism:

     Someone with a rudimentary knowledge of a language may inject words of that new language into sentences to indicate a desire to identify and affiliate.

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