endue

American  

[en-doo, -dyoo] / ɛnˈdu, -ˈdju /

Also indue

verb (used with object)

• endues,
  present (3rd person singular)
• endued,
  past participle,  past
• enduing
  present participle

1. to invest or endow with some gift, quality, or faculty.

2. to put on; assume.

   Hamlet endued the character of a madman.

3. to clothe.

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endue British  

/ ɪnˈdjuː /

verb

1. (usually foll by with) to invest or provide, as with some quality or trait

2. rare (foll by with) to clothe or dress (in)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unendued
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• enduing
  present
• endued
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• endue
  simple
• endues
  simple
• have endued
  perfect
• has endued
  perfect
• am enduing
  progressive
• are enduing
  progressive
• is enduing
  progressive
• have been enduing
  perfect progressive
• has been enduing
  perfect progressive

Past

• endued
  simple
• had endued
  perfect
• was enduing
  progressive
• were enduing
  progressive
• had been enduing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will endue
  simple
• will have endued
  perfect
• will be enduing
  progressive
• will have been enduing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of endue

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English endewen “to induct, initiate,” from Anglo-French, Old French enduire, from Latin indūcere “to lead in, cover, induce”; see induce

Explanation

You probably hope that your years of ballet classes will endue you with the ability to dance like Baryshnikov. In other words, you're dreaming that all of those arabesques and pirouettes will provide you with the dancing talent you wish for. Endue is a fancy literary term that shows up most often in formal writing, but you could impress someone by using it to mean "endow," "invest," or "empower." Less often, endue is used to mean "to put clothes on," or "dress," which makes sense when you know that endue comes from the Latin word induere, or "to put on."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

endue endues endued enduing

Because Knowledge alone doth not endue him with a dexterity of Hand requisite in such a Person, which cannot be acquir'd but by Experience, and repeated Manual Operations.

From The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method. by Charles Gabriel Le Clerc

The Hall of Cynddylan is gloomy this night, Without fire, without candle— Except God doth, who will endue me with patience?

From Trevethlan (Vol 3 of 3) A Cornish Story. by William Davy Watson

Either the grace of God would endue him with peace now and henceforth, or it would be lost to him for ever.

From The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann

The day was an exceedingly warm one, and he derived some little satisfaction from the fact that, at his present work, he was not called upon to endue the armour of respectability.

From Brood of the Witch-Queen by Sax Rohmer

He invoked them to endue his daughter with more than mortal beauty, that she might inflame the soul of princes, and sit upon their throne.

From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume VI by Alexander Leighton

Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that 547:18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter         with power to recreate the universe, including man.

From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

A handkerchief, a glove, a flower,—with a breath she endues them with immortal souls.

From Quest of the Golden Girl, a Romance by Richard Le Gallienne

It is marvellous how freedom of thought operates; what strength it gives to the system; with what lightness and freshness it endues the spirit.

From Charles Lamb by Barry Cornwall

The poet makes the storm, rain, thunder, and lightning live, and at the same time endues his human figures with a strength of feeling and passion which gives them kinship to the elements.

From The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times by Alfred Biese

This assurance of abundance not only produces contentment of mind, but endues that spirit of independence which forms a valuable ingredient in a manly character.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 20, No. 583, December 29, 1832 by Various

That Maggie Kane should also be in the plot was a complication beyond my stunned intelligence; I grasped only the single fact that she was an ally, endued with supernatural and sympathetic forethought.

From Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Martin Ross

I am uneasy, and perhaps in some instances my Sylph would solve my doubts; not that I think him endued with a preternatural knowledge; yet I hardly know what to think neither.

From The Sylph, Volume I and II by Georgiana Cavendish

Mallebranche has justly said, “that to become a philosopher, we must see clearly; but to be endued with faith, we must believe blindly.”

From Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen

He could not be said to be ‘native and endued unto that element.’

From Winterslow Essays and Characters Written There by William Hazlitt

Archbishop Egbert, of the royal race, and endued with divine knowledge, as also Frithbert, both of them truly faithful bishops, departed to the Lord.

From Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Cuthbert Bede

Yet, as Politico noted a few years ago, his presidency “left an enduing influence. It’s impossible to imagine an alternate reality in which the map of the United States stood frozen in 1844.”

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2024

Iowa State: The Cyclones weren’t quite ready for the big stage, enduing one of the poorest shooting performances in recent memory.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2023

But after Singapore she found herself enduing them with the characteristics of the heroes in the novels she had just read for the first time.

From The Ragged Edge by Harold MacGrath

This bloom of love enduing St. Francis's words would be an admirable criterion of the authenticity of those opuscules which tradition attributes to him; but the work of testing is neither long nor difficult.

From Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Louise Seymour Houghton

He was the picture of health, though as far as ever from enduing the comfortable flesh which accompanies robustness in men of calmer temperament.

From Born in Exile by George Gissing