Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to draw inspiration from

to draw inspiration from

5 3.5
Get creative ideas or motivation from something
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : inspirarse en
  • Many artists today draw inspiration from the natural world around them.

I think they're so they're drawing inspiration from like all of the arts.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • When writing her novel, she decided to draw inspiration from her childhood memories.

  • We must continue to draw inspiration from his example and build the world he fought for.

    Blog text (14)

  • So do you draw inspiration from that history?

    Lex Fridman

  • I feel like I draw inspiration from the art of drag so I just.

  • It's definitely something that we could draw inspiration from, to a certain extent.

    Blog text (19)

  • I also draw inspiration from people I've met, my friends, my family.

    Film Courage

  • The time has come for the United States to draw inspiration from its European counterpart.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Tip! One effective way to improve your photography skills is to draw inspiration from other photographers.

    Blog text (11)

  • When Schiller was young, he drew inspiration from the thought of Balzac.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Both the client and the seamstress would have drawn inspiration from engraved fashion plates.

    Academic text (2015)

Synonyms

to draw
vsto draw inspiration from
256 3.0

Get information or lessons from a source

focuses on obtaining creative ideas or motivation from a specific source
to find inspiration
vsto draw inspiration from
8 4.2

To get ideas that make you want to create or act

obtains creative ideas and motivation specifically from a particular source

How Dependent

to exploit
214 5.6
to rely on
602 1.0
to build on
179 3.4
to draw inspiration from
5 3.5

Surface Forms

draw inspiration from infinitive
drawing inspiration from present participle
draws inspiration from third person singular
drew inspiration from past
drawn inspiration from past participle

Morphology

draw + inspiration + from

The phrase's meaning is directly compositional: 'draw' (take/derive) + 'inspiration' (creative motivation) + 'from' (source) yields 'derive creative ideas from a source.' This verb + noun + preposition pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase draw inspiration from comes from two simple images: to draw is to pull water up from a well, and inspiration is like a fresh breath entering you. So, to draw inspiration from something is like pulling fresh water or a fresh breath from that source, meaning 'to get ideas' from it.