enfranchise
[en-fran-chahyz]
- to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, especially to the right of voting.
- to endow (a city, constituency, etc.) with municipal or parliamentary rights.
- to set free; liberate, as from slavery.
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Also franchise.
Origin of enfranchise
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for enfranchise
Historical Examples
"Death alone can enfranchise them from their servitude," has said Para-Brahma.
The Unknown Life of Jesus ChristNicolas Notovitch
By enfranchising the women of this country, you enfranchise humanity.
We are not asking Congress to enfranchise us, because it does not possess that power.
In 1891 a bill was presented to enfranchise women by statute.
The Mother Colony seems likely to be the next to enfranchise women.
enfranchise
- to grant the power of voting to, esp as a right of citizenship
- to liberate, as from servitude
- (in England) to invest (a town, city, etc) with the right to be represented in Parliament
- English law to convert (leasehold) to freehold
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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 enfranchise
v.
early 15c., "to set free," from Old French enfranchiss-, present participle stem of enfranchir "to set or make free; grant a franchise to;" from en- "make, put in" (see en- (1)) + franc "free" (see franchise).
Meaning "to admit to membership in a state" (generally with reference to voting privileges) is from 1680s. Related: Enfranchised; enfranchisement.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper