Enable Definition

Contents

• 1 English
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Verb
    • 1.3.1 Derived terms
    • 1.3.2 Translations
  • 1.4 External links
  • 1.5 Anagrams

English

Part or all of this page has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Etymology

en- +‎ able

Pronunciation

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• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

Verb

to enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)

1. (obsolete) To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
   • (Can we date this quote?), King James Bible, "1 Tim. i. 12"

     Who hath enabled me.

2. To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
   • 1711, October 13, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, number 195

     Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.

3. To allow a way out or excuse for an action.

   His parents enabled him to continue buying drugs.

Derived terms

• enabler
• enablement
• re-enable
• reenable

External links

• enable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• enable in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• enable at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• baleen

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