enable

[en-ey-buhl]

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verb (used with object), en·a·bled, en·a·bling.

to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to; authorize: This document will enable him to pass through the enemy lines unmolested.
to make possible or easy: Aeronautics enables us to overcome great distances.
to make ready; equip (often used in combination): web-enabled cell phones.

Origin of enable

Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at en-¹, able

Related formsen·a·bler, nounpre·en·a·ble, verb (used with object), pre·en·a·bled, pre·en·a·bling.

Synonyms for enable

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1. empower, qualify, allow, permit.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for enable

empower, facilitate, implement, permit, license, prepare, fit, invest, warrant, commission, qualify, let, approve, sanction, ready, endow, condition, accredit, capacitate

Examples from the Web for enable

Contemporary Examples of enable

“There was great reception,” Drew jokes, adding that perhaps he and his girlfriend, a fellow workaholic, enable each other.
How the Property Brothers Became Your Mom’s Favorite TV Stars
Kevin Fallon
November 25, 2014
Even if their oxygen masks had deployed, there is a microphone in the masks to enable them to send a distress call.
Passenger Flights Must Stop Carrying Lithium-Ion Batteries as Cargo
Clive Irving
May 5, 2014
And do we not yearn to do as they did: enable America to “find its ‘greatness’ again”?
Embodying Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Remains a Vital Challenge
Harvey J. Kaye
April 6, 2014
The object should be to strengthen the Negro family so as to enable it to raise and support its members as do other families.
The Imaginary 'Moynihan Report'
Jamelle Bouie
March 14, 2014
Maybe they enable thinking by letting us watch as our looking gets disabled.
Ad Reinhardt's Painful Dazzle
Blake Gopnik
December 5, 2013

Historical Examples of enable

Again she fell upon her knees, and prayed God to enable her.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
What was there in life that could enable one to forget it faster?
Dust
Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
This hole is to enable the syrup to penetrate the inside of the lemons.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches
Eliza Leslie
Call them yours, if you enable me to spend to-night in your place with Marcolina.
Casanova's Homecoming
Arthur Schnitzler
I don't want to know any more about you than will enable me to do what I can for you.
The Greater Inclination
Edith Wharton

British Dictionary definitions for enable

enable

verb (tr)

to provide (someone) with adequate power, means, opportunity, or authority (to do something)
to make possible
to put (a digital electronic circuit element) into an operative condition by supplying a suitable input pulse

Derived Formsenablement, nounenabler, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for enable

early 15c., "to make fit;" mid-15c., "to make able to," from en- (1) "make, put in" + able. Related: Enabled; enabling.