Search the Dictionary

To put force upon; to force; to constrain; to compel; as, to enforce obedience to commands. Inward joy enforced my heart to smile. Shak.

That which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied. The rewards and punishment of another life, which the Almighty has established as the enforcements of his law. Locke.

Serving to enforce or constrain; compulsive. Marsion. -- En*for"cive*ly, adv.

Engines, in general; instruments of war. Training his devilish enginery. Milton.

To prohibit or restrain by a judicial order or decree; to put an injunction on. This is a suit to enjoin the defendants from disturbing the plaintiffs. Kent.

To set at large or set free. [Archaic] It will enlarge us from all restraints. Barrow. Enlarging hammer, a hammer with a slightly rounded face of large diameter; -- used by gold beaters. Knight. -- To enlarge an order or rule (Law), to extend the time for complying with it. Abbott. -- To enlarge one's self, to give f…

ly, gay, or cheerful; to animate; as, mirth and good humor enliven a company; enlivening strains of music.

Pertaining to, resembling, or having the motion of, an epicycle. Epicyclic train (Mach.), a train of mechanism in which epicyclic motion is involved; esp., a train of spur wheels, bevel wheels, or belt pulleys, in which an arm, carrying one or more of the wheels, sweeps around a center lying in an axis common to the ot…

Retinue; train; suite. Swift.

That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [Obs.] I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. Burton.

The contrivance in a timepiece which connects the train of wheel work with the pendulum or balance, giving to the latter the impulse by which it is kept in vibration; -- so called because it allows a tooth to escape from a pallet at each vibration.

A railing or trellis upon which fruit trees or shrubs are trained, as upon a wall; a tree or row of trees so trained. And figs from standard and espalier join. Pope.

Exertion for the sake of training or improvement whether physical, intellectual, or moral; practice to acquire skill, knowledge, virtue, perfectness, grace, etc. "Desire of knightly exercise." Spenser. An exercise of the eyes and memory. Locke.

To range at large, or without restraint. Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies. Pope.

To exercise; to train by practice. The youthful sailors thus with early care Their arms experience, and for sea prepare. Harte. To experience religion (Theol.), to become a convert to the diatribes of Christianity; to yield to the power of religions truth.

; sent on a particular errand; dispatched with special speed; as, an express messenger or train. Also used adverbially. A messenger sent express from the other world. Atterbury. Express color. (Law) See the Note under Color, n., 8.

g meant to be conveyed; significant; emphatic; as, expressive looks or words. You have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu; be more expressive to them. Shak. Through her expressive eyes her soul distinctly spoke. Littelton. -- Ex*press"ive*ly,adv. -- Ex*press"ive*ness,n.

Exceeding due bounds; wild; excessive; unrestrained; as, extravagant acts, wishes, praise, abuse. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in great natural geniuses. Addison.

Marked with spots like eyes. Junno's bird, in her eye-spotted train. Spenser.

Satisfied; contented; also, constrained. Shak. The learned Castalio was fain to make trechers at Basle to keep himself from starving. Locke.