enforce
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English enforcen, from Old French enforcier, from Late Latin infortiāre, from in- + fortis (“strong”).
Inflected forms:
form: enforces
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: enforcing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: enforced
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: enforced
pos: verb
tags: past
form: inforce
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
Far from needing to be repealed, the ban on politics in the pulpit ought to be enforced more aggressively.
gloss: To give strength or force to; to affirm, to emphasize.
pos: verb
examples: The victim was able to enforce his evidence against the alleged perpetrator.
gloss: To strengthen (a castle, town etc.) with extra troops, fortifications etc.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To intensify, make stronger, add force to.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To exert oneself, to try hard.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
reflexive
examples: I pray you enforce youreselff at that justis that ye may be beste, for my love.
gloss: To compel, oblige (someone or something); to force.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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.
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.
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.
gloss: To make or gain by force; to force.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: to enforce a passage
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 […]
gloss: To put in motion or action by violence; to drive.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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
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:
gloss: To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to energize.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: to enforce arguments or requests
[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 […]
gloss: To urge; to ply hard; to lay much stress upon.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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.
gloss: To prove; to evince.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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 words: enforceability
enforceable
enforcedly
enforcement
enforcer
enforcingly
enforcive
misenforce
nonenforced
nonenforcing
reenforce
re-enforce
underenforce
unenforced
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: укрепявам
roman: ukrepjavam
lang: Czech
word: posílit
lang: Czech
word: posilovat
lang: Dutch
word: versterken
lang: Finnish
word: vahvistaa
lang: French
word: renforcer
lang: Greek
word: ισχυροποιώ
roman: ischyropoió
lang: Hungarian
word: megerősít
lang: Hungarian
word: megszilárdít
lang: Italian
word: rafforzare
lang: Portuguese
word: reforçar
lang: Romanian
word: întări
lang: Spanish
word: reforzar
lang: Swedish
word: förstärka