enable
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English enablen, equivalent to en- + able.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈneɪbəl/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -eɪbəl
Verb
[edit]
enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)
- To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy i:12:
- And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
- To affirm; to make firm and strong.
- To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.
- To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.
- Synonym: allow
- 1711 October 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SATURDAY, October 13, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 195; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 506:
- Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
- April 16, 2018, Norimitsu Onishi and Selam Gebrekidan writing in The New York Times, ‘They Eat Money’: How Mandela’s Political Heirs Grow Rich Off Corruption
- 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:
- Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
- 2009, Meribeth A. Dayme, Dynamics of the Singing Voice, Springer Science & Business Media, page 174:
- Trainers of modern athletes monitor performance by using high tech equipment and biometric bodysuits with embedded sensors to enable detailed analysis of movement, balance, efficiency for athletic performance.
- 2022 January 12, David Clough, “From Germany with love: a Warship retrospective”, in RAIL, number 948, page 49:
- During 1971-72, spare Type 4s on other regions enabled the whole class to be sidelined, with Class 43s going first.
- To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.
- His parents enabled him to go on buying drugs.
- (electronics) To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.
- (chiefly electronics, computing) To activate, to make operational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to give power, sanction or authorization to; to provide with abilities, means, opportunities
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to make something possible
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to allow a way out or excuse for an action
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to activate a function of an electronic or mechanical device
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
[edit]- “enable”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “enable”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “enable”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms prefixed with en-
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪbəl
- Rhymes:English/eɪbəl/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Electronics
- en:Computing