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enable - 4 dictionary results

en⋅a⋅ble

[en-ey-buhl]
–verb (used with object), -bled, -bling.
1. to make able; give power, means, competence, or ability to; authorize: This document will enable him to pass through the enemy lines unmolested.
2. to make possible or easy: Aeronautics enables us to overcome great distances.
3. to make ready; equip (often used in combination): Web-enabled cell phones.

Origin:
1375–1425; ME; see en- 1 , able


en⋅a⋅bler, noun


1. empower, qualify, allow, permit.
en·a·ble   (ě-nā'bəl)   
tr.v.   en·a·bled, en·a·bling, en·a·bles
    1. To supply with the means, knowledge, or opportunity; make able: a hole in the fence that enabled us to watch; techniques that enable surgeons to open and repair the heart.
    2. To make feasible or possible: funds that will enable construction of new schools.
  1. To give legal power, capacity, or sanction to: a law enabling the new federal agency.
  2. To make operational; activate: enabled the computer's modem; enable a nuclear warhead.
en·a'bler n.

Enable

En*a"ble\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Enabled; p. pr. & vb. n. Enabling.]

1. To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong. [Obs.] "Who hath enabled me." --1 Tim. i. 12.

Receive the Holy Ghost, said Christ to his apostles, when he enabled them with priestly power. --Jer. Taylor.

2. To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.

Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor. --Addison.
Language Translation for : enable
Spanish: permitir,
German: ermöglichen,
Japanese: 可能にする

enable 
c.1460, from en- "make, put in" + able.
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