In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
ENABLE
enable
(verb) render capable or able for some task; “This skill will enable you to find a job on Wall Street”; “The rope enables you to secure yourself when you climb the mountain”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
enable (third-person singular simple present enables, present participle enabling, simple past and past participle enabled)
To make somebody able (to do, or to be, something); to give sufficient ability or power to do or to be; to give strength or ability to.
Synonyms: empower, endow
To affirm; to make firm and strong.
To qualify or approve for some role or position; to render sanction or authorization to; to confirm suitability for.
Synonyms: let, permit, authorize
To yield the opportunity or provide the possibility for something; to provide with means, opportunities, and the like.
Synonym: allow
To imply or tacitly confer excuse for an action or a behavior.
(electronics) To put a circuit element into action by supplying a suitable input pulse.
(chiefly, electronics, computing) To activate, to make operational (especially of a function of an electronic or mechanical device).
Synonyms: activate, turn on
Antonym: disable
Anagrams
• baleen
Source: Wiktionary
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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
28 May 2025
AIR
(noun) a distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person or thing; “an air of mystery”; “the house had a neglected air”; “an atmosphere of defeat pervaded the candidate’s headquarters”; “the place had an aura of romance”
Coffee Trivia
