achieve
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈt͡ʃiːv/
rhymes: -iːv
Forms: form: achieves
form: achieving
form: achieved
form: achieved
form: atchieve
form: acheive
Etymology: From Middle English achieven, acheven, from Anglo-Norman achever, Old French achever, achiever et al., apparently from Late Latin *accapāre, 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.
Senses: glosses: To succeed in something, now especially in academic performance.
examples: text: achieve goals
text: achieve objectives
text: You can achieve anything if you put your mind to it.
text: Hannah achieved her lifelong dream of winning a medal at the Olympics.
text: 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.
ref: 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
glosses: To carry out successfully; to accomplish.
examples: text: Full many Countreyes they did overronne,
 From the uprising to the setting Sunne,
 And many hard adventures did atchieve […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To conclude, finish, especially successfully.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 January 22, Phil McNulty, “Aston Villa 2-1 Bradford (3-4)”, in BBC:
text: Some are born great, some achieve greatness.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
text: Thou hast achieved our liberty.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To obtain, or gain (a desired result, objective etc.), as the result of exertion; to succeed in gaining; to win.
glosses: To conclude, to turn out.
examples: text: He hath achieved a maid
 That paragons description.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: [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.
ref: 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 ([The Romans] […]), paragraph 8, page 214, column 1:
text: Show all the spoils by valiant kings achieved.
ref: 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700:
glosses: To obtain (a material thing).
Synonyms: sense: carry out successfully
word: accomplish
sense: carry out successfully
word: compass
sense: carry out successfully
word: fulfill
sense: carry out successfully
word: realize
sense: conclude
word: conclude
sense: conclude
word: end
sense: conclude
word: finalize
sense: conclude
word: complete
sense: obtain or gain a desired result
word: attain
sense: obtain or gain a desired result
word: obtain
sense: obtain or gain a desired result
word: compass
sense: obtain or gain a desired result
word: get one's hands on
word: acquire
word: catch
word: earn
word: gain
word: get
word: land
word: reach
word: score
word: succeed
word: win
Hyponyms: word: complete
word: conclude
word: finish
Derived terms: achievability
achievable
achievance
achievement
achiever
outachieve
overachieve
reachieve
superachieving
underachieve