Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interests of another; a foe.
- n. A hostile power or force, such as a nation.
- n. A member or unit of such a force.
- n. A group of foes or hostile forces. See Usage Note at collective noun.
- n. Something destructive or injurious in its effects: "Art hath an enemy called Ignorance” ( Ben Jonson).
- adj. Of, relating to, or being a hostile power or force.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who opposes, antagonizes, or seeks to inflict, or is willing to inflict, injury upon another, from dislike, hatred, conflict of interests, or public policy, as in war; one who is hostile or inimical.
- n. Specifically An opposing military force. See the enemy, below.
- n. A foreign state which is in a condition of open hostility to the state in relation to which the former is regarded, or a subject of such a state.
- n. That which is inimical; anything that is hurtful or dangerous: as, strong drink is one of man's worst enemies; a bad conscience is an enemy to peace.
- n. The adversary of mankind; the devil; Satan.
- n. Time: as, how goes the enemy? (= what o'clock is it?); to kill the enemy.
- n. Synonyms Antagonist, Opponent, etc. See adversary.
- Inimical; hostile; opposed.
- In internȧtional law, belonging to a public enemy; belonging to a hostile power or to any of its subjects: as, enemy property.
- To be hostile.
- n. A dialectal corruption of anemone.
- n. A dialectal (Scotch) corruption of emmet.
Wiktionary
- n. Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
- n. A hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation.
- n. An alliance of such forces.
- adj. of, relating to, or belonging to an enemy
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One hostile to another; one who hates, and desires or attempts the injury of, another; a foe; an adversary
- adj. obsolete Hostile; inimical.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an opposing military force
- n. a personal enemy
- n. an armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force)
- n. any hostile group of people
Etymologies
- From Old French enemi, anemi (Modern French: ennemi), from Latin inimīcus, from in- ("not") + amīcus ("friend") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English enemi, from Old French, from Latin inimīcus : in-, not; see in-1 + amīcus, friend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Nevertheless I continued my course towards the enemy, that to the number of twenty ships had been seen since eight o'clock at S.S.W. My opinion as to the state of the ships of the squadron remaining still indecisive, in the afternoon I desired to know _if it was advisable to attack the enemy_; the ships Concepcion, Mexicano, San Pablo,”
Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II
“He is, indeed, called an enemy to pilgrims, and the laft enemy*.”
“Timeline: Walter Cronkite’s Life and Career The trouble began when the moderator asked Jennings what he would do if, during a war between the U.S. and another country, he’d been given the chance to travel with the enemy and report from behind his lines — only to discover, from this vantage point, that the enemy was about to spring a trap and mow the Americans down.”
The Wall Street Journal: Ghosts of Broadcast Journalism Past
“The Obama administration has since abandoned using the term "enemy combatant.”
“McCain's confusion about who our main enemy is seems to be part of a troubling pattern, and I have predicted that this will have serious political ramifications in the coming months.”
“The use of the term enemy is significant to me, as is the word speaking.”
“The term enemy combatant has been used for decades to define members of a military who engage in activities such as sabotage and espionage that occur outside normal combat.”
The Wall Street Journal: 'Enemy Combatant' Label Is Dropped for Detainees
“LOU DOBBS, HOST: Tonight the Obama administration abandons the term enemy combatants for terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”
“Our main enemy is not primarily the Mahdi army or any of the factions in Iraq but Ahmadinejad and the mullahocracy in Iran.”
“It is always an entertainment to an inquisitive reader, to trace a sentiment to its original source, and, therefore, though the term enemy of man, applied to the devil, is in itself natural and obvious, yet some may be pleased with being informed, that Shakespeare probably borrowed it from the first lines of the Destruction of Troy, a book which he is known to have read.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enemy’.
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steffany(grade 2)
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base, beach and 127 more...
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Tati's list
comfortable
comfortable, avocado, avoid, beautiful, beer, bear, brief, breath, bug, bias, burn, case and 97 more...
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jackgrade2
accident, agree, arrive, astronomy, atlas, attention, award, aware, balance, banner, bare, base and 127 more...
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Violence
sucker punch, punch, bunch of fives, haymaker, bare-knuckle, punch-drunk, brawler, scrapper, hellkite, street fighter, gamecock, powerhouse and 30 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Tunie: Word Disassociation
(I'm fairly sure that I'm subverting the whole concept of the Tunie by listing this song. Subversion! Yes! HA HA HA HA! Mine is an evil laugh!!!)
Word Disassociation
antidisestablishm..., quickly, ruby, bionic, about, crouch, a cappella, imposter, flames, distraction, murderous, over and 181 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Prosie: Obama's Inaugural Address
In keeping with my other Prosies (like this one). There were a number of phrases as well as words in this speech that I found particularly compelling.
My fellow citizens: I stand here ...we did not turn b..., when we were tested, what storms may come, icy currents, virtue, hope, alarmed, depth of winter, revolution, snow, enemy, abandoned and 257 more...
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savage215's Words
pipe, yankee, knickerbocker, tennis, plasma, magma, volcano, car, truck, television, tv, word and 445 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Theme Prompts
There's a fiction meme (mostly on Livejournal) where writers use words as a prompt for a short story snippet. I've been collecting the words that show up on these lists as prompts for creative writ...
white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet, queen, king, prince and 407 more...
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Other
brouhaha, pulchritude, laudanum, orotund, leviathan, inimical, ephemeral, quiescence, exhort, nemoral, inculcate, cacotopia and 125 more...
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them's fighting words
punch, attack, aggravate, struggle, combat, battle, hit, pelt, injure, weapons, fists, fisticuffs and 51 more...
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bucklemeswash's Words
conniption, megadodo, nevertheless, sausage, pie, pi, quagga, ennui, splash, winsome, sizzle, amphitheatre and 11 more...
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Abbreviate
Is there a name for this type of word?
expediency, obediency, eminency, enemy, arrestee, escapee, ogee, beady, essay, effigy, elegy, tennessee and 59 more...
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Friend or Foe
Also check out Reese Tee's Through Thick & Thin for more friend words.
comrade, netop, bro, bra, brah, girl, boy, dude, homie, dawg, best friend, BFF and 60 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for enemy.
oroboros Sounds like the letters N M E. Oct 28, 2009