achieve

English

Alternative forms

• atchieve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English achieven, acheven, from Anglo-Norman achever, Old French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accappāre, present active infinitive of *accappō, from ad (“to”) + caput (“head”) + -ō (verbal suffix), or alternatively a construction based on Old French chief (“head”). Compare Catalan, Occitan, Portuguese and Spanish acabar, French achever.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈt͡ʃiːv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv

Verb

achieve (third-person singular simple present achieves, present participle achieving, simple past and past participle achieved)

1. (intransitive) To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance.
2. (transitive) To carry out successfully; to accomplish.

   You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.

   Hannah achieved her lifelong dream of winning a medal at the Olympics.

   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. , London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

     Supposing faculties and powers to be the same, far more may be achieved in any line by the aid of a capital, invigorating motive than without it.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To conclude, finish, especially successfully.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Full many Countreyes they did overronne, / From the uprising to the setting Sunne, / And many hard adventures did atchieve […]

4. (transitive) To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.

   • 2013 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4)”, in BBC:

     Bradford may have lost on the night but they stubbornly protected a 3-1 first-leg advantage to emulate a feat last achieved by Rochdale in 1962.

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Some are born great, some achieve greatness.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Thou hast achieved our liberty.

5. (obsolete, intransitive) To conclude, to turn out.
6. (transitive, now literary) To obtain (a material thing).
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     He hath achieved a maid / That paragons description.

   • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Flavius Domitian”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. , London: William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, , →OCLC, book VI ( ), paragraph 8, page 214, column 1:

     [U]s hitherto this Corner and ſecret receſſe hath defended, novv the Vttermoſt point of our Land is laid open: and things the leſſe they haue beene vvithin knovvledge, the greater the glorie is to atchieue them.

   • 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700

   Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.

Synonyms

• (carry out successfully): accomplish, fulfil, fulfill, realize
• (conclude): conclude, end, finalize, complete
• (obtain or gain a desired result): attain, obtain, get one's hands on

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “achieve”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “achieve”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.