All 5 Uses of
initiate
in
The Age of Innocence
- And he contemplated her absorbed young face with a thrill of possessorship in which pride in his own masculine initiation was mingled with a tender reverence for her abysmal purity.†
Chpt 1 *
- It was annoying that the box which was thus attracting the undivided attention of masculine New York should be that in which his betrothed was seated between her mother and aunt; and for a moment he could not identify the lady in the Empire dress, nor imagine why her presence created such excitement among the initiated.†
Chpt 2
- Now she was eagerly curious to know what had decided the Beauforts to invite (for the first time) Mrs. Lemuel Struthers, the widow of Struthers's Shoe-polish, who had returned the previous year from a long initiatory sojourn in Europe to lay siege to the tight little citadel of New York.†
Chpt 4
- The guests had been selected with a boldness and discrimination in which the initiated recognised the firm hand of Catherine the Great.†
Chpt 6 *
- This procedure was called "protecting a woman's honour"; and the best fiction, combined with the after-dinner talk of his elders, had long since initiated him into every detail of its code.†
Chpt 31
Definitions:
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(initiate as in: initiate into the fraternity) to accept someone's membership into an organization -- typically in a ceremony -- sometimes including a period of instruction and/or test
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(initiate as in: initiate discussions) to cause (something) to begin