enisle
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make an island of.
-
to place on an island.
-
to isolate.
verb
Etymology
Origin of enisle
Explanation
To enisle something is to place it on an island or to isolate it as though it were on an island. A peninsula that has been cut off from the mainland by flooding has been enisled, even if only temporarily. The word enisle can refer to literally and physically turning a piece of land into an island by surrounding it with water on all sides. It might also refer to putting someone or something on an island. Historically, Napoleon Bonaparte was enisled twice — physically exiled to a remote island to prevent further conflict. The term is also used figuratively to describe isolating or separating a person, group, or region, as though on an island. Famous people sometimes enisle themselves to maintain privacy and escape public scrutiny.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The map shows how Northern sea-power could not only divide the South in two but almost enisle the eastern part as well.
From Captains of the Civil War; a chronicle of the blue and the gray by Wood, William Charles Henry
Swimming in symbolism, The Chairs readily enough suggests people's enisled fate in life's estranging sea, their efforts to flesh their daydreams, enforce their beliefs, communicate, be remembered.
From Time Magazine Archive
Such girls were placed on view at 10:30 a.m. for the express purpose of allowing the women of their age who had remained enisled in Maycomb to examine them.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
Try to imagine yourself ensconced there, having climbed up by the short flight of steps which will be attached to it, enisled and remote amidst the surging traffic that sweeps through a drawing-room.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 192-06-30 by Various
While one they eye, flushed from his crowning, Ranks legions around him To shake the enisled neighbour nation And close her career!
From The Dynasts by Hardy, Thomas
Yes: in the sea of life enisled, With echoing straits between us thrown, Dotting the shoreless watery wild, We mortal millions live alone.
From The Home Book of Verse — Volume 2 by Stevenson, Burton Egbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
