endue

American  

[en-doo, -dyoo] / ɛnˈdu, -ˈdyu /

Also indue

verb (used with object)

endued, enduing

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

• unendued adjective

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”; 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

Love spreads a thousand toils, nor one in vain, Amid the many charms, bright, pure, and new, That so her high and heavenly part endue, No style can equal it, no mind attain.

From The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Campbell, Thomas

Each grace and gift of form and mind Adorns that prince of human kind; And virtues like his own endue His brother ever firm and true.

From The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Griffith, Ralph T. H. (Ralph Thomas Hotchkin)

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 Sudermann, Hermann

Surely God did not endue us with the power of hoping that we might fling it all away on trivial, transient things.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John by Maclaren, Alexander

The fresh forest air was in his lungs, the great woodland through which they were now riding commenced to endue him with the fearless spirit of the waste.

From Nevermore by Bolderwood, Rolf