Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

ENSHIELD — ENTRAIL

ENSHIELD, v.t. [from shield.] To shield; to cover; to protect.

ENSHRINE, v.t. [from shrine.] To inclose in a shrine or chest; to deposit for safe-keeping in a cabinet.

ENSHRINED, pp. Inclosed or preserved in a shrine or chest.

1. Inclosed; placed as in a shrine.

ENSHRINING, ppr. Inclosing in a shrine or cabinet.

ENSIFEROUS, a. [L. ensis, sword, and fero, to bear.]

Bearing or carrying a sword.

ENSIFORM, a. [L. ensiformis; ensis, sword, and forma, form.]

Having the shape of a sword; as the ensiform or xiphoid cartilage; an ensiform leaf.

ENSIGN, n. en’sine. [L. insigne, insignia, from signum, a mark impressed, a sign.]

1. The flag or banner of a military band; a banner of colors; a standard; a figured cloth or piece of silk, attached to a staff, and usually with figures, colors or arms thereon, borne by an officer at the head of a company, troop or other band.

2. Any signal to assemble or to give notice.

He will lift up an ensign to the nations. Isaiah 5:26.

Ye shall be left as an ensign on a hill. Isaiah 30:17.

3. A badge; a mark of distinction, rank or office; as ensigns of power or virtue.

4. The officer who carries the flag or colors, being the lowest commissioned officer in a company of infantry.

5. Naval ensign, is a large banner hoisted on a staff and carried over the poop or stern of a ship; used to distinguish ships of different nations, or to characterize different equadrons of the same navy.

ENSIGN-BEARER, n. He that carries the flag; an ensign.

ENSIGNCY, n. The rank, office or commission of an ensign.

ENSKIED, a. Placed in heaven; made immortal. [Not in use.]

ENSLAVE, v.t. [from slave.] To reduce to slavery or bondage; to deprive of liberty and subject to the will of a master. Barbarous nations enslave their prisoners of war, but civilized men barbarously and wickedly purchase men to enslave them.

1. To reduce to servitude or subjection. Men often suffer their passions and appetites to enslave them. They are enslaved to lust, to anger, to intemperance, to avarice.

ENSLAVED, pp. Reduced to slavery or subjection.

ENSLAVEMENT, n. The state of being enslaved; slavery; bondage; servitude.

ENSLAVER, n. He who reduces another to bondage.

ENSLAVING, ppr. Reducing to bondage; depriving of liberty.

ENSNARE, [See Insnare.]

ENSOBER, v.t. [from sober.] To make sober.

ENSPHERE, v.t. [from sphere.] To place in a sphere.

1. To make into a sphere.

ENSTAMP, v.t. [from stamp.] To impress as with a stamp; to impress deeply.

God enstamped his image on man.

ENSTAMPED, pp. Impressed deeply.

ENSTAMPING, ppr. Impressing deeply.

ENSTYLE, v.t. To style; to name; to call. [Little used.]

ENSUE, v.t. [L. sequor, to follow. See Seek.]

To follow; to pursue.

Seek peace, and ensue it. 1 Peter 3:11.

[In this sense, it is obsolete.]

ENSUE, v.i. To follow as a consequence of premises; as, from these facts or this evidence, the argument will ensue.

1. To follow in a train of events or course of time; to succeed; to come after. He spoke and silence ensued. We say, the ensuing age or years; the ensuing events.

ENSUING, ppr. Following as a consequence; succeeding.

ENSURE, and its derivatives. [See Insure.]

ENSWEEP, v.t. To sweep over; to pass over rapidly.

ENTABLATURE, ENTABLEMENT, [L. tabula, a board or table.]

In architecture, that part of the order of a column, which is over the capital, including the architrave, frieze and cornice, being the extremity of the flooring.

ENTACKLE, v.t. To supply with tackle. [Not used.]

ENTAIL, n.

1. An estate or fee entailed, or limited indescent to a particular heir or heirs. Estates-tail are general, as when lands and tenements are given to one and the heirs of his body begotten; or special, as when lands and tenements are given to one and the heirs of his body by a particular wife.

2. Rule of descent settled for an estate.

3. Engraver’s work; inlay.

ENTAIL, v.t. To settle the descent of lands and tenements, by gift to a man and to certain heirs specified, so that neither the donee nor any subsequent possessor can alienate or bequeath it; as, to entail a manor to AB and to his eldest son, or to his heirs of his body begotten, or to his heirs by a particular wife.

1. To fix unalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants. By the apostasy misery is supposed to be entailed on mankind. The intemperate often entail infirmities, diseases and ruin on their children.

2. [from the French verb.] To cut; to carve for ornament.

ENTAILED, pp. Settled on a man and certain heirs specified.

1. Settled on a person and his descendants.

ENTAILING, ppr. Settling the descent of an estate; giving, as lands and tenements, and prescribing the mode of descent; settling unalienably on a person or thing.

ENTAILMENT, n. The act of giving, as an estate, and directing the mode of descent, or of limiting the descent to a particular heir or heirs.

1. The act of settling unalienable on a man and his heirs.

ENTAME, v.t. [from tame.] To tame; to subdue.

ENTANGLE, v.t. [from tangle.] To twist or interweave in such a manner as not to be easily separated; to make confused or disordered; as, thread, yarn or ropes may be entangled; to entangle the hair.

1. To involve in any thing complicated, and from which it is difficult to extricate one’s self; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers.

2. To lose in numerous or complicated involutions, as in a labyrinth.

3. To involve in difficulties; to perplex; to embarrass; as, to entangle a nation in alliances.

4. To puzzle; to bewilder; as, to entangle the understanding.

5. To insnare by captious questions; to catch; to perplex; to involve in contradictions.

The Pharisees took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. Matthew 22:15.

6. To perplex or distract, as with cares.

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. 2 Timothy 2:4.

7. To multiply intricacies and difficulties.

ENTANGLED, pp. or a. Twisted together; interwoven in a confused manner; intricate; perplexed; involved; embarrassed; insnared.

ENTANGLEMENT, n. Involution; a confused or disordered state; intricacy; perplexity.

ENTANGLER, n. One who entangles.

ENTANGLING, ppr. Involving; interweaving or interlocking in confusion; perplexing; insnaring.

ENTENDER, v.t. To treat with tenderness or kindness.

ENTER, v.t. [L. inter, intra, whence intro, to enter. The L. inter seems to be in, with the termination ter, as in subter, from sub.]

1. To move or pass into place, in any manner whatever; to come or go in; to walk or ride in; to flow in; to pierce or penetrate. A man enters a house; an army enters a city or a camp; a river enters the sea; a sword enters the body; the air enters a room at every crevice.

2. To advance into, in the progress of life; as, a youth has entered his tenth year.

3. To begin in a business, employment or service; to enlist or engage in; as, the soldier entered the service at eighteen years of age.

4. To become a member of; as, to enter college; to enter a society.

5. To admit or introduce; as, the youth was entered a member of College.

6. To set down in writing; to set an account in a book or register; as, the clerk entered the account or charge in the journal; he entered debt and credit at the time.

7. To set down, as a name; to enroll; as, to enter a name in the enlistment.

8. To lodge a manifest of goods at the custom-house, and gain admittance or permission to land; as, to enter goods. We say also, to enter a ship at the custom-house.

ENTER, v.i. To go or come in; to pass into; as, to enter a country.

1. To flow in; as, water enters into a ship.

2. To pierce; to penetrate; as, a ball or an arrow enters into the body.

3. To penetrate mentally; as, to enter into the principles of action.

4. To engage in; as, to enter into business or service; to enter into visionary projects.

5. To be initiated in; as, to enter into a taste of pleasure or magnificence.

6. To be an ingredient; to form a constituent part. Lead enters into the composition of pewter.

ENTERDEAL, n. Mutual dealing. [Not in use.]

ENTERED, pp. Moved in; come in; pierced; penetrated; admitted; introduced; set down in writing.

ENTERING, ppr. Coming or going in; flowing in; piercing; penetrating; setting down in writing; enlisting; engaging.

ENTERING, n. Entrance; a passing in. 1 Thessalonians 1:9.

ENTERLACE, [See Interlace.]

ENTEROCELE, n. [Gr. intestine, and tumor.] In surgery, intestinal hernia; a rupture of the intestines.

ENTEROLOGY, n. [Gr. intestine, and discourse.] A treatise or discourse on the bowels or internal parts of the body, usually including the contents of the head, breast and belly.

ENTEROMPHALOS, n. [Gr. intestine, and navel.] Navel rupture; umbilical rupture.

ENTERPARLANCE, n. Parley; mutual talk or conversation; conference.

ENTERPLEAD, [See Interplead.]

ENTERPRISE, n. s as z. That which is undertaken, or attempted to be performed; an attempt; a project attempted; particularly, a bold, arduous or hazardous undertaking, either physical or moral. The attack on Stoney-Point was a bold, but successful enterprise. The attempts to evangelize the heathen are noble enterprises.

Their hands cannot perform their enterprise. Job 5:12.

ENTERPRISE, v.t. To undertake; to begin and attempt to perform.

The business must be enterprised this night.

ENTERPRISED, pp. Undertaken; attempted; essayed.

ENTERPRISER, n. An adventurer; one who undertakes any projected scheme, especially a bold or hazardous one; a person who engages in important or dangerous designs.

ENTERPRISING, ppr. Undertaking, especially a bold design.

1. Bold or forward to undertake; resolute, active, or prompt to attempt great or untried schemes. Enterprising men often succeed beyond all human probability.

ENTERTAIN, v.t. [L. tenco.]

1. To receive into the house and treat with hospitality, either at the table only, or with lodging also.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2.

2. To treat with conversation; to amuse or instruct by discourse; properly, to engage the attention and retain the company of one, by agreeable conversation, discourse or argument. The advocate entertained his audience an hour, with sound argument and brilliant displays of eloquence.

3. To keep in one’s service; to maintain. He entertained ten domestics.

You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred.

[This original and French sense is obsolete or little used.]

4. To keep, hold or maintain in the mind with favor; to reserve in the mind; to harbor; to cherish. Let us entertain the most exalted views of the Divine character. It is our duty to entertain charitable sentiments towards our fellow men.

5. To maintain; to support; as, to entertain a hospital.

6. To please; to amuse; to divert. David entertained himself with the meditation of God’s law. Idle men entertain themselves with trifles.

7. To treat; to supply with provisions and liquors, or with provisions and lodging, for reward. The innkeeper entertains a great deal of company.

ENTERTAIN, n. Entertainment. [Not in use.]

ENTERTAINED, pp. Received with hospitality, as a guest; amused; pleased and engaged; kept in the mind; retained.

ENTERTAINER, n. He who entertains; he who received company with hospitality, or for reward.

1. He who retains others in his service.

2. He that amuses, pleases or diverts.

ENTERTAINING, ppr. Receiving with hospitality; receiving and treating with provisions and accommodations, for reward; keeping or cherishing with favor; engaging the attention; amusing.

1. Pleasing; amusing; diverting; as an entertaining discourse; an entertaining friend.

ENTERTAININGLY, adv. In an amusing manner.

ENTERTAINMENT, n. The receiving and accommodating of guests, either with or without reward. The hospitable man delights in the entertainment of his friends.

1. Provisions of the table; hence also, a feast; a superb dinner or supper.

2. The amusement, pleasure or instruction, derived from conversation, discourse, argument, oratory, music, dramatic performances, etc.; the pleasure which the mind receives from any thing interesting, and which holds or arrests the attention. We often have rich entertainment, in the conversation of a learned friend.

3. Reception; admission.

4. The state of being in pay or service. [Not used.]

5. Payment of those retained in service.

6. That which entertains; that which serves for amusement; the lower comedy; farce.

ENTERTISSUED, a. Interwoven; having various colors intermixed.

ENTHEASTIC, a. [Gr. god.] Having the energy of God.

ENTHEASTICALLY, adv. According to deific energy.

ENTHEAT, a. Enthusiastic. [Not in use.]

ENTHRALL, v.t. To enslave. [See Inthrall.]

ENTHRILL, v.t. To pierce. [See Thrill.]

ENTHRONE, v.t. [from throne.] To place on a throne; to exalt to the seat of royalty.

Beneath a sculptured arch he sits enthroned.

1. To exalt to an elevated place or seat.

2. To invest with sovereign authority.

ENTRHONED, pp. Seated on a throne; exalted to an elevated place.

ENTHRONING, ppr. Seating on a throne; raising to an exalted seat.

ENTHUNDER, v.i. To make a loud noise, like thunder.

ENTHUSIASM, n. enthuziazm. [Gr. to infuse a divine spirit, inspired, divine; God.]

1. A belief or conceit of private revelation; the vain confidence or opinion of a person, that he has special divine communications from the Supreme Being, or familiar intercourse with him.

Enthusiasm is founded neither on reason nor divine revelation, but rises from the conceits of a warmed or overweening imagination.

2. Heat of imagination; violent passion or excitement of the mind, in pursuit of some object, inspiring extravagant hope and confidence of success. Hence the same heat of imagination, chastised by reason or experience, becomes a noble passion, an elevated fancy, a warm imagination, an ardent zeal, that forms sublime ideas, and prompts to the ardent pursuit of laudable objects. Such is the enthusiasm of the poet, the orator, the painter and the sculptor. Such is the enthusiasm of the patriot, the hero and the christian.

Faction and enthusiasm are the instruments by which popular government are destroyed.

ENTHUSIAST, n. enthu’ziast.

1. One who imagines he has special or supernatural converse with God, or special communications from him.

2. One whose imagination is warmed; one whose mind is highly excited with the love or in the pursuit of an object; a person of ardent zeal; as an enthusiast in poetry or music.

3. One of elevated fancy or exalted ideas.

ENTHUSIASTIC, ENTHUSIASTICAL, a. Filled with enthusiasm, or the conceit of special intercourse with God or revelations from him.

1. Highly excited; warm and ardent; zealous in pursuit of an object; heated to animation. Our author was an enthusiastic lover of poetry and admirer of Homer.

2. Elevated; warm; tinctured with enthusiasm. The speaker addressed the audience in enthusiastic strains.

ENTHUSIASTICALLY, adv. With enthusiasm.

ENTHYMEMATICAL, a. Pertaining to an enthymeme; including an enthymeme.

ENTHYMEME, n. [Gr. to think or conceive; mind.] In rhetoric, an argument consisting of only two propositions, an antecedent and a consequent deduced from it; as, we are dependent, therefore we should be humble. Here the major proposition is suppressed; the complete syllogism would be, dependent creatures should be humble; we are dependent creatures; therefore we should be humble.

ENTICE, v.t. [L. titio, a firebrand.]

1. To incite or instigate, by exciting hope or desire; usually in a bad sense; as, to entice one to evil. Hence, to seduce; to lead astray; to induce to sin, by promises or persuasions.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs 1:10.

2. To tempt; to incite; to urge or lead astray.

Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. James 1:14.

3. To incite; to allure; in a good sense.

ENTICED, pp. Incited; instigated to evil; seduced by promises or persuasions; persuaded; allured.

ENTICEMENT, n. The act or practice of inciting to evil; instigation; as the enticements of evil companions.

1. Means of inciting to evil; that which seduces by exciting the passions. Flattery often operates as an enticement to sin.

2. Allurement.

ENTICER, n. One who entices; one who incites or instigates to evil; one who seduces.

ENTICING, ppr. Inciting to evil; urging to sin by motives, flattery or persuasion; alluring.

1. Having the qualities that entice or allure.

ENTICINGLY, adv. Charmingly; in a winning manner.

She sings most enticingly.

ENTIRE, a. [L. integer, said to be in neg. and tango, to touch.]

1. Whole; undivided; unbroken; complete in its parts.

2. Whole; complete; not participated with others. This man has the entire control of the business.

3. Full; complete; comprising all requisites in itself.

An action is entire, when it is complete in all its parts.

4. Sincere; hearty.

He run a course more entire with the king of Arragon.

5. Firm; solid; sure; fixed; complete; undisputed.

Entire and sure the monarch’s rule must prove,

Who founds her greatness on her subjects’ love.

6. Unmingled; unalloyed.

In thy presence joy entire.

7. Wholly devoted; firmly adherent; faithful.

No man had a heart more entire to the king.

8. In full strength; unbroken.

9. In botany, an entire stem is one without branches; an entire leaf is without any opening in the edge, not divided.

ENTIRELY, adv. Wholly; completely; fully; as, the money is entirely lost.

1. In the whole; without division.

Euphrates--falls not entirely into the Persian sea.

2. With firm adherence or devotion; faithfully.

ENTIRENESS, n. Completeness; fullness; totality; unbroken form or state; as the entireness of an arch or a bridge.

1. Integrity; wholeness of heart; honesty.

ENTIRETY, n. Wholeness; completeness; as entirety of interest.

1. The whole.

ENTITATIVE, a. [from entity.] considered by itself. [This word, and entitatively, rarely or never used.]

ENTITLE, v.t. [L. titulus, a title.]

1. To give a title to; to give or prefix a name or appellation; as, to entitle a book, Commentaries on the laws of England.

2. To superscribe or prefix as a title. Hence as titles are evidences of claim or property, to give a claim to; to give a right to demand or receive. The labor of the servant entitles him to his wages. Milton is entitled to fame. Our best services do not entitle us to heaven.

3. To assign or appropriate by giving a title.

4. To qualify; to give a claim by the possession of suitable qualifications; as, an officer’s talents entitle him to command.

5. To dignify by a title or honorable appelation. In this sense, title is often used.

6. To ascribe.

ENTITLED, pp. Dignified or distinguished by a title; having a claim as, every good man is entitled to respect.

ENTITLING, ppr. Dignifying or distinguishing by a title; giving a title; giving a claim.

ENTITY, n. [Low L. entitas.] Being; existence.

Fortune is no real entity.

1. A real being, or species of being.

ENTOIL, v.t. [See Toil.] To take with toils; to ensnare; to entangle.

ENTOMB, v.t. entoom’. [from tomb.] To deposit in a tomb, as a dead body.

1. To bury in a grave; to inter.

ENTOMBED, pp. Deposited in a tomb; buried; interred.

ENTOMBING, ppr. Depositing in a tomb; burying; interring.

ENTOMBMENT, n. Burial.

ENTOMOLITE, n. [Gr. insect, stone.]

A fossil substance bearing the figure of an insect, or a petrified insect.

ENTOMOLOGICAL, a. Pertaining to the science of insects.

ENTOMOLOGIST, n. One versed in the science of insects.

ENTOMOLOGY, n. [Gr. insect, to cut, discourse.]

That part of zoology which treats of insects; the science or history and description of insects.

ENTORTILATION, n. A turning into a circle.

ENTRAIL, ENTRAILS, n.

1. The internal parts of animal bodies; particularly, the guts or intestines; the bowels; used chiefly in the plural.

2. The internal parts; as the entrails of the earth.

The dark entrails of America.

ENTRAIL, v.t. To interweave; to diversify. [Not in use.]