enjoin
Americanverb (used with object)
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enjoins,
present (3rd person singular)
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enjoined,
past participle, past
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enjoining
present participle
verb
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to order (someone) to do (something); urge strongly; command
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to impose or prescribe (a condition, mode of behaviour, etc)
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law to require (a person) to do or refrain from doing (some act), esp by issuing an injunction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enjoinsimple
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enjoinssimple
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have enjoinedperfect
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has enjoinedperfect
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am enjoiningprogressive
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are enjoiningprogressive
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is enjoiningprogressive
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have been enjoiningperfect progressive
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has been enjoiningperfect progressive
Past
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enjoinedsimple
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had enjoinedperfect
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was enjoiningprogressive
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were enjoiningprogressive
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had been enjoiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enjoin
1175–1225; Middle English enjoi ( g ) nen < Old French enjoindre < Latin injungere to fasten to, bring upon. See in- 2, join
Explanation
To enjoin is to issue an urgent and official order. If the government tells loggers to stop cutting down trees, they are enjoining the loggers to stop. Enjoin looks like it should mean bring together, and at one time, it did have that meaning. But in current usage, the only thing enjoin brings together is a command and the person on the receiving end of that order. If your doctor enjoins you to stop smoking, he is suggesting strongly that you quit.
Vocabulary lists containing enjoin
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Romeo and Juliet
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act IV
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The order would also “permanently” restrain and enjoin Musk’s trust from violating the section of the Exchange Act that was the subject of this case, according to the text of the proposed settlement.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
Court of International Trade to enjoin the tariffs so businesses don’t have to pay them while litigation plays out and later seek refunds if higher courts rule them unlawful.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026
The department argues that “district courts lack jurisdiction to hear challenges arising from removal proceedings or to issue orders that enjoin or restrain execution of removal orders.”
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2025
It’s possible that the court could "enjoin" Trump from repeating the statements found to be defamatory, but it’s not clear that Carroll is asking for this, Lovell added.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2024
Some employers go further; instead of relying on the informal “money taboo” to keep workers from discussing and comparing wages, they specifically enjoin workers from doing so.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
“A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill” enjoins us to remember.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2022
So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
“The court hereby enjoins Defendants from executing Keith Nelson until they have met the requirements of the FDCA,” Chutkan wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 27, 2020
The government argued that if the court enjoins Bolton, then its order should also bind his publisher, Simon & Schuster.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2020
The same document enjoins that the abovementioned masters, living together, shall attend lectures on theology, and shall be able, at the same time, to hear lectures on the decrees and decretals.
From Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, July 1865 by
Confronted with the rules of fair play, the reader was enjoined to solve the case alongside the detective, which required seeing through the author’s sleights of hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
“But as discussed, plaintiffs have made a sufficient showing that defendants issued internal guidance to terminate public-health grants for unlawful reasons; that guidance is enjoined as the parties develop a record.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026
During that period, I would expect that pregnant families would likely file class-action litigation under Rule 23 to try to have the executive order enjoined on a classwide basis.
From Slate ● May 19, 2025
"I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called 'Fork Directive' pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues," said O'Toole in a hearing on Thursday.
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2025
As might be expected, Serjeant Clippinger had no interest in the case, and enjoined me to cease my prim bickering.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
District Judge Leo Sorkin ruled in their favor in Boston on Thursday, enjoining the order that had already been blocked by federal judges in Washington, New Hampshire and Maryland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2025
“This broad displacement contradicts what B.P.J. told the court a few months ago — that not one ‘single person’ would be harmed by enjoining this validly enacted state law.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Elizabeth Davis, a lawyer for the state, said no enforcement action is ongoing and enjoining the ethics body, properly known as the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, would be “overbroad and premature.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
The law’s challengers, a group of Black-led advocacy organizations, sought temporary relief enjoining enforcement of the law while the case proceeds.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2021
In this way the pious man complies with the law enjoining abstinence from meat, and with an easy conscience smacks his lips over a roast pheasant which he has dubbed fish.
From Morals and the Evolution of Man by Max Simon Nordau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
