Word of the Day

: June 9, 2021

enjoin

verb in-JOIN

What It Means

1 : to direct or impose by authoritative order or with urgent admonition

2 a : forbid, prohibit

b : to prohibit by a judicial order : put an injunction on

enjoin in Context

"And yet, to satisfy this good old man, / I would bend under any heavy weight/ That he'll enjoin me to." — William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 1598-99

"The city attorney has explicitly written of this exclusion in a letter to the residents of my neighborhood, enjoining us from communicating at all with our city councilors, on the matter of the Zia Station development." — Antoinette Shook, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 1 May 2021

Did You Know?

Enjoin has the Latin verb jungere, meaning "to join," at its root, but the kind of joining expressed by enjoin is quite particular: it is about linking someone to an action or activity by either requiring or prohibiting it. When it's the former at hand—that is, when enjoin is used to mean "to direct or impose by authoritative order or with urgent admonition"—the preposition to is typically employed, as in "they enjoined us to secrecy." When prohibition is involved, from is common, as in "signs enjoin attendees from photographing the event." In legal contexts, enjoining involves prohibition by judicial order, through means of an injunction, as in "the judge enjoined them from selling the contract."