enfranchise
to admit to citizenship, especially to the right of voting: By about 1860, most white men without property had been enfranchised.
to give (a person or group) the rights or privileges of full participation in society or in any community or organization, especially the opportunity to influence policy or make their voice heard: The online forum enfranchises nurses, giving them a sense of belonging both to the profession and to the organization they work for.
to set free; liberate, as from slavery or from some disabling constraint: Some ideologies enfranchise innovative creativity, while others suppress it.
to endow (a city, constituency, etc.) with municipal or parliamentary rights.
to grant a franchise to: The Chicago White Sox were enfranchised in Iowa in 1894, when the team was known as the Sioux City Cornhuskers.
British. to give the tenant of (a leasehold) the right to purchase freehold of the property or to extend the lease, often up to the end of life.
Origin of enfranchise
1- Also franchise.
Other words from enfranchise
- en·fran·chise·ment [en-fran-chahyz-muhnt, -chiz-], /ɛnˈfræn tʃaɪz mənt, -tʃɪz-/, noun
- en·fran·chis·er, noun
- un·en·fran·chised, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use enfranchise in a sentence
Mutlaq is painfully aware that his own side will be harmed if they spurn a place at the table of the enfranchised.
And the authorities should take special steps to ensure women feel better enfranchised.
They have existed ever since on the gratitude of these newly enfranchised city voters.
The newly enfranchised are mightily sensible of their freedom, and it is extremely difficult to tell them of their faults.
Expositor's Bible: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians | James DenneyWho would be left to fill the royal treasury if I enfranchised Jacques Bonhomme?
The Iron Trevet or Jocelyn the Champion | Eugne Sue
In half a dozen countries women are already completely enfranchised.
What eight million women want | Rheta Childe DorrSome day the past would confront and denounce her, perhaps; but for the moment she was enfranchised anew of human society.
The Cup of Fury | Rupert Hughes
British Dictionary definitions for enfranchise
/ (ɪnˈfræntʃaɪz) /
to grant the power of voting to, esp as a right of citizenship
to liberate, as from servitude
(in England) to invest (a town, city, etc) with the right to be represented in Parliament
English law to convert (leasehold) to freehold
Derived forms of enfranchise
- enfranchisement, noun
- enfranchiser, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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