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enforce. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
enforce, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
enforce in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
enforce you have here. The definition of the word
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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)
- 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.
- To give strength or force to; to affirm, to emphasize.
- The victim was able to enforce his evidence against the alleged perpetrator.
- (obsolete, transitive) To strengthen (a castle, town etc.) with extra troops, fortifications etc.
- (obsolete, transitive) To intensify, make stronger, add force to.
- (obsolete, reflexive) To exert oneself, to try hard.
1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book VII, by
William Caxton], published
31 July 1485,
→OCLC; republished as H
Oskar Sommer, editor,
Le Morte Darthur , London:
David Nutt,
,
1889,
→OCLC:
I pray you enforce youreselff at that justis that ye may be beste, for my love.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (obsolete) To compel, oblige (someone or something); to force.
1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard 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 [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by 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.
- (obsolete) To make or gain by force; to force.
to enforce a passage
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 106:Ne shame he thought to shonne so hideous might, / The ydle stroke, enforcing furious way, / Missing the marke of his misaymed sight / Did fall to ground […]
- (obsolete) To put in motion or action by violence; to drive.
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], 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, 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:
- (obsolete) To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to urge with energy.
- to enforce arguments or requests
1796, Edmund Burke, “Letter I. On the Overtures of Peace.”, in Two Letters Addressed to a Member of the Present Parliament on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: F and C Rivington, , published 20 October 1796, →OCLC, page 60:[T]he eloquence of the declaration, not contradicting, but enforcing sentiments of the truest humanity, has left stings that have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind […]
- (obsolete) To urge; to ply hard; to lay much stress upon.
c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :In this point charge him home, that he affects / Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, / Enforce him with his envy to the people, / And that the spoil got on the Antiates / Was ne’er distributed.
- (obsolete) To prove; to evince.
1594, Richard Hooker, “A Preface to Them that Seeke (as They Terme It) the Reformation of Lawes and Orders Ecclesiasticall, in the Church of England”, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, , 3rd edition, London: Will Stansby , published 1611, →OCLC, book I:But what argument are ye able to shew, whereby it was euer prooued by Caluin, that any one sentence of Scripture doth necessarily enforce these things, or the rest wherein your opinion concurreth with his against the orders of your owne Church?
Derived terms
Translations
to keep up
- Bulgarian: налагам (bg) (nalagam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 實施/实施 (zh) (shíshī), 執行/执行 (zh) (zhíxíng)
- Czech: prosazovat, vynucovat, udržovat (cs) impf, vynutit pf
- Dutch: handhaven (nl)
- Esperanto: eldevigi
- Finnish: valvoa (fi), ylläpitää (fi)
- Georgian: აღსრულება (aɣsruleba), აღასრულებს (aɣasrulebs)
- German: vollstrecken (de)
- Hungarian: érvényre juttat, érvényt szerez, érvényesít (hu), betartat (hu), elfogadtat (hu), keresztülvisz (hu), kikényszerít (hu), kierőszakol (hu), végrehajt (hu), megvalósít (hu), fenntart (hu)
- Irish: cuir i bhfeidhm
- Italian: applicare (it), rispettare (it), fare rispettare
- Spanish: hacer cumplir, hacer respectar, aplicar (es)
- Swedish: upprätthålla (sv)
|
(obsolete in English) to strengthen
(obsolete in English) to intensify
(obsolete in English) to exert oneself, try hard
(obsolete in English) to compel
Translations to be checked
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “enforce”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present. (has "US /ɪnˈfɔːrs/, UK /ɪnˈfɔːs/")
- ^ “enforce”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ “enforce”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
Anagrams