endow

[en-dou]

verb (used with object)

1. to provide with a permanent fund or source of income.

   to endow a college.

2. to furnish, as with some talent, faculty, or quality; equip.

   Nature has endowed her with great ability.

   Synonyms: endue, clothe, invest

3. Obsolete.,  to provide with a dower.

verb (used without object)

1. (of a life-insurance policy) to become payable; yield its conditions.

endow

/ ɪnˈdaʊ /

verb

1. to provide with or bequeath a source of permanent income

2. (usually foll by with) to provide (with qualities, characteristics, etc)

3. obsolete,  to provide with a dower

Other Word Forms

• endower noun
• reendow verb (used with object)
• superendow verb (used with object)
• unendowing adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of endow¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English endowen, from Old French endouer, equivalent to en- en- ¹ + douer, from Latin dōtāre “to dower,” equivalent to dōt- (stem of dōs ) “dowry” + -āre infinitive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of endow¹

C14: from Old French endouer, from _en- ¹ + douer , from Latin dōtāre, from dōs dowry

Example Sentences

With incredible detail, he has reconstructed the ways a modest fund endowed by a reluctant heir managed to reshape American civil rights in less than 20 years.

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Entry wall text — there is no catalog — says it “explores how human experience is embedded in the land, presenting the work of artists who endow it with meaning.”

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It was endowed with the profits that the U.S.

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Our Boy placed that child’s consciousness inside a synthetic body resembling an adult woman, then endowed that construct with superior strength, heightened reflexes and a supercomputer with remote hacking capabilities for a brain.

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Given the extensive abuse to which we subject mechanical helpers that aren’t endowed with consciousness, why wouldn’t they turn on us if they were?

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Related Words

• bestow 
• donate 
• empower 
• enable 
• enhance 
• enrich 
• subsidize