ENTITLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does entitle mean? 

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

1. give the right to

2. give a title to

3. give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility

  Familiarity information: ENTITLE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENTITLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they entitle    ... he / she / it entitles   
Past simple: entitled   
Past participle: entitled   
-ing form: entitling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give the right to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

The Freedom of Information Act entitles you to request your FBI file

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

authorise; authorize; empower (give or delegate power or authority to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They entitle him to write the letter

Derivation:

entitlement (right granted by law or contract (especially a right to benefits))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give a title to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

entitle; title

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

be known as; call; know as; name (assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to)

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

proclaim (declare formally; declare someone to be something; of titles)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

ennoble; entitle; gentle

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

advance; elevate; kick upstairs; promote; raise; upgrade (give a promotion to or assign to a higher position)

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

baronetise; baronetize (confer baronetcy upon)

lord (make a lord of someone)

dub; knight (raise (someone) to knighthood)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

She had never considered herself as entitled to reward for not slighting an old friend like Mrs Smith, but here was a reward indeed springing from it!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They were no more inclined than entitled to demand his money.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

My reconcilement to the Yahoo kind in general might not be so difficult, if they would be content with those vices and follies only which nature has entitled them to.

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

A study entitled Atlas of the Caatingas gathers in-depth data on both the land and the flora in each of the areas surveyed.

(Brazilian savanna unprotected, study finds, Agência Brasil)

I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A native or naturalized member of a state or country, especially one entitled to vote and enjoy other privileges there.

(Citizen, NCI Thesaurus)

With him it is entirely a matter of feeling: he claims no merit in it; perhaps is entitled to none.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But you are not entitled to know mine; nor will such behaviour as this, ever induce me to be explicit.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

In fact, it was when filled with these thoughts that he wrote his essay entitled "Star-dust," in which he had his fling, not at the principles of criticism, but at the principal critics.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I had been writing, in the newspaper and elsewhere, so prosperously, that when my new success was achieved, I considered myself reasonably entitled to escape from the dreary debates.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)