enough
- adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire: enough water; noise enough to wake the dead.
- an adequate quantity or number; sufficiency.
- in a quantity or degree that answers a purpose or satisfies a need or desire; sufficiently.
- fully or quite: ready enough.
- (used to express impatience or exasperation): Enough! I heard you the first time.
Origin of enough
Synonyms
See more synonyms for enough on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for enough
Contemporary Examples
Grindr currently has twelve ‘tribes,’ and for some people this just is not enough.
He added: “People say he deserves his day in court… Do we have enough time?”
Bill Maher: Hundreds of Millions of Muslims Support Attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo’Lloyd Grove
January 8, 2015
I had enough experiences around languages that it just sort of happened.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
“Competition is there, of course, but I think there is enough business for everyone as long as the demand is there,” he says.
The Air Force has enough MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Historical Examples
"There's enough like that kind, though," interrupted Uncle Peter.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
"That'll be enough for us, unless you are very hungry," said Robert.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
There was not enough food in the valley for both the old inhabitants and the newcomers.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
Often enough these innovations were not due to the cleverness of man's brain.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
This was enough to make them traitors in the eyes of the Egyptians.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
enough
- sufficient to answer a need, demand, supposition, or requirement; adequateenough cake
- (as pronoun)enough is now known
- that's enough! that will do: used to put an end to an action, speech, performance, etc
- so as to be adequate or sufficient; as much as necessaryyou have worked hard enough
- (not used with a negative) very or quite; rathershe was pleased enough to see me
- (intensifier)oddly enough; surprisingly enough
- just adequately; tolerablyhe did it well enough
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for enough
adj.
c.1300, from Old English genog, a common Germanic formation (cf. Old Saxon ginog, Old Frisian enoch, Dutch genoeg, Old High German ginuog, German genug, Old Norse gnogr, Gothic ganohs).
This is a compound of ge- "with, together" (also a participial, collective, intensive, or perfective prefix) + root -nah, from PIE *nek- "reach, attain" (cf. Sanskrit asnoti "reaches," Hittite ninikzi "lifts, raises," Lithuanian nešti "to bear, carry," Latin nancisci "to obtain").
It is the most prominent among the surviving examples of Old English ge-, the equivalent of Latin com- and Modern German ge-, from PIE *kom- "beside, near, by, with" (see com-).
Meaning "moderately, fairly, tolerably" (good enough) was in Middle English. Understated sense of have had enough "have had too much" was in Old English (which relied heavily on double negatives and understatement). Colloquial 'nough said is attested from 1839.
Idioms and Phrases with enough
enough
In addition to the idioms beginning with enough
- enough is enough
- enough rope, give someone
- enough said
- enough to sink a ship
also see:
- fair enough
- had enough
- leave well enough alone
- not enough room to swing a cat
- sure enough
- (enough) to wake the dead