ENLIST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does enlist mean? 

• ENLIST (verb)
  The verb ENLIST has 3 senses:

1. join the military

2. hire for work or assistance

3. engage somebody to enter the army

  Familiarity information: ENLIST used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENLIST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they enlist    ... he / she / it enlists   
Past simple: enlisted   
Past participle: enlisted   
-ing form: enlisting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Join the military

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

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

sign up (join a club, an activity, etc. with the intention to join or participate)

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

conscript (enroll into service compulsorily)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

enlistment (a period of time spent in military service)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hire for work or assistance

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

engage; enlist

Context example:

engage aid, help, services, or support

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

procure; secure (get by special effort)

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

recruit (seek to employ)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage somebody to enter the army

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

draft; enlist; muster in

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

enrol; enroll; enter; inscribe; recruit (register formally as a participant or member)

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

levy; raise; recruit (cause to assemble or enlist in the military)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

discharge (release from military service)

Derivation:

enlistee (any new member or supporter (as in the armed forces))

enlisting (the act of getting recruits; enlisting people for the army (or for a job or a cause etc.))

enlistment (a period of time spent in military service)

 Context examples 

It seems strange to me that all round me do not burn to enlist under the same banner,—to join in the same enterprise.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Him we enlisted at Para, on the recommendation of the steamship company, on whose vessels he had learned to speak a halting English.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You may be enlisting teammates or co-workers to help.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It involved enlisting around a thousand screened volunteers — including snake-rescuers, naturalists and forestry workers — to upload photograph sightings of India’s four most medically important snakes, along with information such as location, time of day and weather.

(Snakebite resolution set for Health Assembly approval, SciDev.Net)

After a little further conversation, we went round to the chandler's shop, to enlist Peggotty; Traddles declining to pass the evening with me, both because he endured the liveliest apprehensions that his property would be bought by somebody else before he could re-purchase it, and because it was the evening he always devoted to writing to the dearest girl in the world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is the cause of God I advocate: it is under His standard I enlist you.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)