equip
verb (used with object)
to supply with whatever gear or apparatus is needed for use or for any undertaking; fit out, as a ship or army.
equip
1 American
[ih-kwip]
/ ɪˈkwɪp /
verb (used with object)
-
equips,
present (3rd person singular)
-
equipped,
past participle, past
-
equipping
present participle
-
to supply with whatever gear or apparatus is needed for use or for any undertaking; fit out, as a ship or army.
They spent several thousand dollars to equip their boat.
-
to provide with intellectual or emotional resources; prepare.
Education and travel have equipped her to deal with all sorts of people.
-
to dress; array.
He equipped himself in all his finery.
equip.
2
American
abbreviation
equip
British
/ ɪˈkwɪp /
verb
-
to furnish with (necessary supplies, etc)
-
(usually passive) to provide with abilities, understanding, etc
her son was never equipped to be a scholar
-
to dress out; attire
Synonym Usage
See furnish.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
equipsimple
-
equipssimple
-
have equippedperfect
-
has equippedperfect
-
am equippingprogressive
-
are equippingprogressive
-
is equippingprogressive
-
have been equippingperfect progressive
-
has been equippingperfect progressive
Past
-
equippedsimple
-
had equippedperfect
-
was equippingprogressive
-
were equippingprogressive
-
had been equippingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of equip
First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French equiper, Old French esquiper “to fit out, equip,” probably from Old Norse skipa “to put in order, arrange, man (a ship)”
Explanation
To equip means to provide something needed for a particular purpose. If you’re planning a trip to the Arctic, you should equip yourself with warm clothes, tents, and two-way radios. You might want to equip someone with an ice axe for ice climbing and a diving watch for underwater excursions. The ice axe or the diving watch is their equipment. Equip can also be used in a more figurative sense. If you are supposed to write computer programs but have never worked with a computer, you might say that you are not equipped for that. On a really bad day, it might feel like people are not equipped to deal with each other politely.
Vocabulary lists containing equip
Chapter 24: World War I
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President Obama's second inaugural address
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Vocabulary Review, Unit 6
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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:
One major goal for future research is to equip the microrobots with onboard cameras and sensors.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Many of the companies he has worked at are also public, which could equip Polymarket to consider an IPO in the future.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
The exercise in 2027 will "go through measures to call out, to use and equip" procedures to mobilise retired troops at scale should it ever be needed, she added.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
A few months ago, suppliers had offered pharmacies around 200 pairs each, enough to equip about four million people, he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
The man took my grandfather to the store to buy him some warm clothes to wear until he could properly equip himself for the winter.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
“But we can’t facilitate. We can educate. We can navigate. We can equip. We’ve got an entire educational library. July 1 didn’t just get here and go, ‘Okay, you figure this out.’
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2021
Half of the Helios campus is leased to CoreWeave, which equips it, positioning Galaxy to capitalize on AI demand.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
Pinehurst also equips every caddie and every golf cart with GPS trackers, the better to know precisely how play is progressing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Washington leads PrEPHer, a program that equips Black, brown, and queer women with sexual health education and access to free HIV/STI self-testing kits.
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026
“We want to be an uncommon transformational program that teaches and equips young women for life beyond UCLA,” said Close.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2025
Uncle Sam builds war ships, equips his soldiers splendidly, conducts his business affairs with high grade talent, all this that the United States may be well advertised among our sister nations.
From Dollars and Sense by William Crosbie Hunter
Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have told Boeing that they don’t want to receive new 737 MAX planes equipped with the flawed software, and instead requested an earlier version of it, according to industry officials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Parents had arrived equipped with sandwiches, books, playing cards and colouring paper to entertain their children during the wait for the pope on his way to a makeshift alter down the road.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
He thinks the company could generate about $15,000 in recurring software revenue each month for every truck equipped with autonomous-vehicle technology.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
The Hawker Hunter, a British-designed Cold War-era fighter jet, is equipped with a Martin-Baker ejection seat that allows the pilot to blast out of the cockpit in an emergency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
In the summer of 1944, at last the 46th Guards were equipped with parachutes.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
Generative A.I. certainly has the potential to worsen pandemic conspiracy theories by equipping them with highly convincing fabricated evidence.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, meanwhile, became the first in California to employ the device, equipping two vehicles by mid-2025 and adding another eight vehicles six months later.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
It is expanding its China portfolio of vehicles with different drivetrains and equipping them with China-specific premium infotainment systems and advanced driver-assistance systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
CoreWeave is perhaps the leading name among the so-called neoclouds, which are young, nimble companies rapidly equipping AI and cloud data centers for hyperscalers and other customers.
From Barron's ● Mar. 31, 2026
When the cost of caring for, feeding, and equipping the animals was added, it became more economical for people living in cities to rent horses from livery stables, much as people rent cars today.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
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.
