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
The record describes what is part of the case, and if the record shows violations, then the court has a duty to enjoin that.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2025
“Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere,” wrote acting Solicitor Gen. Sarah M. Harris.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 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 Campbell House, included in admission, enjoins history buffs to self-tour an elegant 1900s mansion.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2021
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
On the other hand the Abbé Dudouyt writing from Paris, enjoins prudence on the bishop, lest "it should seem as if he could not keep on good terms with anybody."
From Count Frontenac Makers of Canada, Volume 3 by William Dawson LeSueur
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
During that period, I would expect that pregnant families would likely file class-action litigation under Rule 23 to try to have the executive order enjoined on a classwide basis.
From Slate ● May 19, 2025
"I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called 'Fork Directive' pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues," said O'Toole in a hearing on Thursday.
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2025
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 meantime, lower courts should test the limits of Slaughter by enjoining removals that hamstring agencies by denying them a quorum.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
“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
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered them released last week while it considers whether the group should remain subject to the restraining order enjoining it from accessing or using Konnech’s data.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
Elizabeth Davis, a lawyer for the state, said no enforcement action is ongoing and enjoining the ethics body, properly known as the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, would be “overbroad and premature.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
He sat down and wrote a letter and delivered it to a swift courier, enjoining him not to rest or tarry till he had placed it in the proper hands.
From The Slaves of the Padishah by M?r J?kai
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.
