ENFORCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does enforce mean? 

• ENFORCE (verb)
  The verb ENFORCE has 2 senses:

1. ensure observance of laws and rules

2. compel to behave in a certain way

  Familiarity information: ENFORCE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENFORCE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they enforce    ... he / she / it enforces   
Past simple: enforced   
Past participle: enforced   
-ing form: enforcing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ensure observance of laws and rules

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

apply; enforce; implement

Context example:

Apply the rules to everyone

Hypernyms (to "enforce" is one way to...):

compel; obligate; oblige (force somebody to do something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enforce"):

execute; run (carry out a process or program, as on a computer or a machine)

execute (carry out the legalities of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

exempt (grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to)

Derivation:

enforcement (the act of enforcing; ensuring observance of or obedience to)

enforcer (one whose job it is to execute unpleasant tasks for a superior)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Compel to behave in a certain way

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

constrain; enforce; impose

Context example:

duty constrains one to act often contrary to one's desires or inclinations

Hypernyms (to "enforce" is one way to...):

compel; obligate; oblige (force somebody to do something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

enforcement (the act of enforcing; ensuring observance of or obedience to)

 Context examples 

They enforced their live strength with the power of dead things.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

What was the benefit of a law written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were no officers to enforce it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I described, and enforced them earnestly.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And these people thought it a prodigious defect of policy among us, when I told them that our laws were enforced only by penalties, without any mention of reward.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Even enforced events will benefit you.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Bessie would rather have stayed, but she was obliged to go, because punctuality at meals was rigidly enforced at Gateshead Hall.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A coded value specifying the geographical area or limits an entity has to make laws and enforce them.

(Jurisdiction Territory Code, NCI Thesaurus)

Classes or family therapy may help parents learn to set and enforce limits.

(Child Behavior Disorders, NIH)

Then leaving her seat, and coming to him to enforce the proposal, added in a whisper, We want to make a table for Mrs. Rushworth, you know.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A coded value specifying the type of governance over which an entity has to make laws and enforce them.

(Jurisdiction Authority Code, NCI Thesaurus)