enforce

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English enforcen, from Old French enforcier, from Late Latin infortiāre, from in- + fortis (“strong”).

Pronunciation

Verb

enforce (third-person singular simple present enforces, present participle enforcing, simple past and past participle enforced)

  1. To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force.
    The police are there to enforce the law.
    • 1929, Chiang Kai-shek, quoted in “Nationalist Notes,” Time, 11 February, 1929,
      Our task is only half finished. It will be my duty to enforce the decisions of the conference and I hereby pledge myself to that end.
    • 2013 September 8, “The pulpit should be free of politics”, in Los Angeles Times:
      Far from needing to be repealed, the ban on politics in the pulpit ought to be enforced more aggressively.
  2. To give strength or force to; to affirm, to emphasize.
    The victim was able to enforce his evidence against the alleged perpetrator.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To strengthen (a castle, town etc.) with extra troops, fortifications etc.
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To intensify, make stronger, add force to.
  5. (obsolete, reflexive) To exert oneself, to try hard.
  6. (obsolete) To compel, oblige (someone or something); to force.
    • 1594, Christopher Marlow, The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: , London: ">…] for Henry Bell, , published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      Sweete prince I come, these these thy amorous lines, / Might haue enforst me to haue swum from France, / And like Leander gaspt vpon the sande, / So thou wouldst smile and take me in thy armes.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior , The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection iv:
      Uladislaus the Second, King of Poland, and Peter Dunnius, Earl of Shrine had been hunting late, and were enforced to lodge in a poor cottage.
    • 1899, E. OE. Somerville, Martin Ross, Some Experiences of an Irish R.M., Great Uncle McCarthy:
      In a few minutes I was stealthily groping my way down my own staircase, with a box of matches in my hand, enforced by scientific curiosity, but none the less armed with a stick.
  7. (obsolete) To make or gain by force; to force.
    to enforce a passage
  8. (obsolete) To put in motion or action by violence; to drive.
    • c. 1587–1588, , Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii:
      Auster and Aquilon with winged Steeds
      All ſweating, tilt about the watery heauens,
      With ſhiuering ſpeares enforcing thunderclaps,
      And from their ſhields ſtrike flames of lightening
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      If they’ll do neither, we will come to them, / And make them skirr away, as swift as stones / Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
  9. (obsolete) To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to energize.
    to enforce arguments or requests
  10. (obsolete) To urge; to ply hard; to lay much stress upon.
  11. (obsolete) To prove; to evince.

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “enforce”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present. (has "US /ɪnˈfɔːrs/, UK /ɪnˈfɔːs/")
  2. ^ “enforce”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  3. ^ William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “enforce”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
  4. ^ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Enforce”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.

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