enforcement

From Old French enforcement, see enforce +‎ -ment.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɔːsm(ə)nt/, /ɛn-/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfoɹsm(ə)nt/, /ɛn-/
• Hyphenation: en‧force‧ment

enforcement (usually uncountable, plural enforcements)

1. The act of enforcing; compulsion.
   • 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Seconde Booke of the Fyrste Decade to Ascanius Phorcia [i.e., Ascanio Sforza], Vicounte Cardinall. &c.”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, 1st decade, folio 8, recto:

     [M]en lyued ſimplye and innocentlye without inforcement of lawes, without quarellinge Judges and libelles, contente onely to ſatiſfie nature, without further vexation for knowledge of thinges to come.

2. A giving force to; a putting in execution.
3. That which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied.

• inforcement (archaic)

• enforcement on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Enforcement”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “enforcement”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “enforcement”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “enforcement”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “enforcement”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.