enjoy

• enioy, injoy (obsolete)

From Middle English enjoyen, from Old French enjoier, anjoier, enjoer (“to give joy, receive with joy, rejoice”), equivalent to en- +‎ joy.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/, /ənˈd͡ʒɔɪ/, /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: en‧joy
• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

enjoy (third-person singular simple present enjoys, present participle enjoying, simple past and past participle enjoyed)

1. (transitive) To receive pleasure or satisfaction from something.

   Enjoy your holidays!   I enjoy dancing.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XLVI, page 69:

     And we shall sit at endless feast,
     ⁠Enjoying each the other’s good;
     ⁠What vaster dream can hit the mood
     Of Love on earth?

   • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

2. (transitive) To have the use or benefit of something.

   I plan to go travelling while I still enjoy good health.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Numbers 36:8:

     that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers

   • 1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 17”, in The Secret Adversary:

     Night and day were the same in this prison room, but Tommy's wrist-watch, which enjoyed a certain degree of accuracy, informed him that it was nine o'clock in the evening.

   • 1988, Harry G Frankfurt, The importance of what we care about: philosophical essays:

     This account fails to provide any basis for doubting that animals of subhuman species enjoy the freedom it defines.

   • 2008, Jonathan Borwein, ‎David Bailey, Mathematics by Experiment:

     The Indo-Arabic system was introduced into Europe in 1000 CE, but due to resistance from several quarters, centuries elapsed before it finally enjoyed widespread use.

3. (intransitive, India) To be satisfied or receive pleasure.

   I enjoyed a lot.

4. (transitive) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Never did thy Beautie […] so enflame my sense With ardor to enjoy thee.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (receive pleasure or satisfaction): appreciate, delight in, rejoice, relish
• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

• joyen, joyne