The specific signification of in is situation or place with respect to surrounding, environment, encompassment, etc. It is used with verbs signifying being, resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part. In its different applications, it approaches some of the meanings of, and sometimes is interchangeable with, within, into, on, at, of, and among.
With reference to space or place; as, he lives in Boston; he traveled in Italy; castles in the air.
The babe lying in a manger.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west.
Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude.
Matter for censure in every page.
With reference to circumstances or conditions; as, he is in difficulties; she stood in a blaze of light.
Wrapt in sweet sounds, as in bright veils.
With reference to a whole which includes or comprises the part spoken of; as, the first in his family; the first regiment in the army.
Nine in ten of those who enter the ministry.
With reference to physical surrounding, personal states, etc., abstractly denoted; as, I am in doubt; the room is in darkness; to live in fear.
When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
With reference to character, reach, scope, or influence considered as establishing a limitation; as, to be in one's favor.
Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh.
With reference to movement or tendency toward a certain limit or environment; -- sometimes equivalent to into; as, to put seed in the ground; to fall in love; to end in death; to put our trust in God.
He would not plunge his brother in despair.
She had no jewels to deposit in their caskets.
With reference to a limit of time; as, in an hour; it happened in the last century; in all my life.
Phrases & Compounds
In as much as
in the degree that; in like manner as; in consideration that; because that; since. See Synonym of Because, and cf. For as much as, under For, prep.
In that
because; for the reason that.
In the name of
in behalf of; on the part of; by authority; as, it was done in the name of the people; -- often used in invocation, swearing, praying, and the like.
To be in for it
To be in favor of a thing; to be committed to a course.
To be in with
To be close or near; as, to keep a ship in with the land.
In
adv.
Not out; within; inside. In, the preposition, becomes an adverb by omission of its object, leaving it as the representative of an adverbial phrase, the context indicating what the omitted object is; as, he takes in the situation (i. e., he comprehends it in his mind); the Republicans were in (i. e., in office); in at one ear and out at the other (i. e., in or into the head); his side was in (i. e., in the turn at the bat); he came in (i. e., into the house).
Their vacation . . . falls in so pat with ours.
With privilege or possession; -- used to denote a holding, possession, or seisin; as, in by descent; in by purchase; in of the seisin of her husband. (Law)