equip
verb (used with object)
to supply with whatever gear or apparatus is needed for use or for any undertaking; fit out, as a ship or army.
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equip
1 American
[ih-kwip]
/ ɪˈkwɪp /
verb (used with object)
-
equips,
present (3rd person singular)
-
equipped,
past participle, past
-
equipping
present participle
-
to supply with whatever gear or apparatus is needed for use or for any undertaking; fit out, as a ship or army.
They spent several thousand dollars to equip their boat.
-
to provide with intellectual or emotional resources; prepare.
Education and travel have equipped her to deal with all sorts of people.
-
to dress; array.
He equipped himself in all his finery.
equip.
2
American
abbreviation
equip
British
/ ɪˈkwɪp /
verb
-
to furnish with (necessary supplies, etc)
-
(usually passive) to provide with abilities, understanding, etc
her son was never equipped to be a scholar
-
to dress out; attire
Synonym Usage
See furnish.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
equipsimple
-
equipssimple
-
have equippedperfect
-
has equippedperfect
-
am equippingprogressive
-
are equippingprogressive
-
is equippingprogressive
-
have been equippingperfect progressive
-
has been equippingperfect progressive
Past
-
equippedsimple
-
had equippedperfect
-
was equippingprogressive
-
were equippingprogressive
-
had been equippingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of equip
First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French equiper, Old French esquiper “to fit out, equip,” probably from Old Norse skipa “to put in order, arrange, man (a ship)”
Explanation
To equip means to provide something needed for a particular purpose. If you’re planning a trip to the Arctic, you should equip yourself with warm clothes, tents, and two-way radios. You might want to equip someone with an ice axe for ice climbing and a diving watch for underwater excursions. The ice axe or the diving watch is their equipment. Equip can also be used in a more figurative sense. If you are supposed to write computer programs but have never worked with a computer, you might say that you are not equipped for that. On a really bad day, it might feel like people are not equipped to deal with each other politely.
Vocabulary lists containing equip
Chapter 24: World War I
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President Obama's second inaugural address
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Vocabulary Review, Unit 6
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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:
One major goal for future research is to equip the microrobots with onboard cameras and sensors.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Many of the companies he has worked at are also public, which could equip Polymarket to consider an IPO in the future.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
"We need clear information in order to equip people from a public health point of view to be able to make informed choices and informed decisions," she added.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The institution is looking to supply Colombian earthquake victims with antibiotics and wound care packages and to equip paramedics with surgical equipment and field medic packs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
I knew what tools to equip them with because I’d been exactly where they were.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
“But we can’t facilitate. We can educate. We can navigate. We can equip. We’ve got an entire educational library. July 1 didn’t just get here and go, ‘Okay, you figure this out.’
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2021
Half of the Helios campus is leased to CoreWeave, which equips it, positioning Galaxy to capitalize on AI demand.
From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026
The program equips families with books and technology like mobile hotspots.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
Pinehurst also equips every caddie and every golf cart with GPS trackers, the better to know precisely how play is progressing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Bateman: What comedy equips you with is a comfort in playing flawed people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026
He to whom the arm of the Lord is re- vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence, that equips man with divine power while it shames human pride.
From Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 by Mary Baker Eddy
But the aspiration to deliver tailored health advice to consumers is back with a vengeance, now equipped with a richer instrument panel and AI to connect the dots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
Parents had arrived equipped with sandwiches, books, playing cards and colouring paper to entertain their children during the wait for the pope on his way to a makeshift alter down the road.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
The animal has red eyes and a short proboscis equipped with claws that help it grab food before biting.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 25, 2026
The Hawker Hunter, a British-designed Cold War-era fighter jet, is equipped with a Martin-Baker ejection seat that allows the pilot to blast out of the cockpit in an emergency.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
It also had two watertight hatches for entering and leaving the vessel, one at the front and another at the rear, and two short conning towers equipped with small portholes.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Driven by a postpandemic influx of ultra-high-net-worth buyers, developers are equipping new luxury towers with rooftop helipads and deep-water docks—allowing residents to bypass Miami’s increasingly congested streets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Generative A.I. certainly has the potential to worsen pandemic conspiracy theories by equipping them with highly convincing fabricated evidence.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
"The programme of equipping the Navy with nuclear weapons is following its planned course unerringly," Kim reportedly told the ceremony.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Other measures include deploying drones to identify suspects, putting armoured vehicles on standby, and equipping all officers with riot gear.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
Men were drilled in preparing their planes for impact and equipping themselves for postcrash survival.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
