enjoin
Americanverb (used with object)
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enjoins,
present (3rd person singular)
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enjoined,
past participle, past
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enjoining
present participle
verb
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to order (someone) to do (something); urge strongly; command
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to impose or prescribe (a condition, mode of behaviour, etc)
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law to require (a person) to do or refrain from doing (some act), esp by issuing an injunction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enjoinsimple
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enjoinssimple
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have enjoinedperfect
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has enjoinedperfect
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am enjoiningprogressive
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are enjoiningprogressive
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is enjoiningprogressive
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have been enjoiningperfect progressive
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has been enjoiningperfect progressive
Past
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enjoinedsimple
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had enjoinedperfect
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was enjoiningprogressive
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were enjoiningprogressive
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had been enjoiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enjoin
1175–1225; Middle English enjoi ( g ) nen < Old French enjoindre < Latin injungere to fasten to, bring upon. See in- 2, join
Explanation
To enjoin is to issue an urgent and official order. If the government tells loggers to stop cutting down trees, they are enjoining the loggers to stop. Enjoin looks like it should mean bring together, and at one time, it did have that meaning. But in current usage, the only thing enjoin brings together is a command and the person on the receiving end of that order. If your doctor enjoins you to stop smoking, he is suggesting strongly that you quit.
Vocabulary lists containing enjoin
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Romeo and Juliet
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act IV
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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 order would also “permanently” restrain and enjoin Musk’s trust from violating the section of the Exchange Act that was the subject of this case, according to the text of the proposed settlement.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
Court of International Trade to enjoin the tariffs so businesses don’t have to pay them while litigation plays out and later seek refunds if higher courts rule them unlawful.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 8, 2026
Going forward, courts may only enjoin enforcement to the extent necessary to give relief to the plaintiffs who brought the case.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2025
But Sotomayor explains that federal courts have long exercised their authority to enjoin state and federal laws, including in cases dating back to the 19th century.
From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2025
Some employers go further; instead of relying on the informal “money taboo” to keep workers from discussing and comparing wages, they specifically enjoin workers from doing so.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
So, will you join in the battle to give every citizen the full equality which God enjoins and the law requires, whatever his belief, or race, or the color of his skin?
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
The First Amendment enjoins Congress from legally establishing a particular religion or requiring citizens to observe or deny religious tenets.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 7, 2021
“The court hereby enjoins Defendants from executing Keith Nelson until they have met the requirements of the FDCA,” Chutkan wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 27, 2020
The May federal ruling further enjoins “officers, agents, and employees” of WPM from “suppressing the availability of truthful negative comments or reviews through any means, including threats, intimidation, non-disparagement clauses, and suppression of online content.”
From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2018
I am ready, if necessity enjoins, to take up the sword once more, but only in case of unrighteous invasion or to settle a grievous wrong.
From Legends & Romances of Spain by Lewis Spence
Confronted with the rules of fair play, the reader was enjoined to solve the case alongside the detective, which required seeing through the author’s sleights of hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
“If you’re not actually doing what the District Court found you to be doing and enjoined you from doing, then there should be no harm,” Sung said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2025
When they stop individuals with no reasonable suspicion, they act in violation of federal law, and a court in California has enjoined this practice.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2025
“Nor has the Government adequately identified which particular provisions, if any, are sufficiently independent of the enjoined definitional provision and thus might be able to remain in effect,” reads the ruling.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2024
Directly after the conference I sent Prime Minister Verwoerd a letter in which I formally enjoined him to call a national constitu-tional convention.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
In the book of Genesis, God sealed the covenant with Abraham by enjoining him to “circumscribe the flesh of your foreskin.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
District Judge Leo Sorkin ruled in their favor in Boston on Thursday, enjoining the order that had already been blocked by federal judges in Washington, New Hampshire and Maryland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2025
“This broad displacement contradicts what B.P.J. told the court a few months ago — that not one ‘single person’ would be harmed by enjoining this validly enacted state law.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
Both complaints request a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining defendants from rejecting these ballots.
From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2022
At this visit, after various polite phrases had been interchanged, Haggard premised his oration by enjoining on Yandall to interpret his words exactly.
From Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers
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