Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give more force or effectiveness to; strengthen: The news reinforced her hopes.
- v. To strengthen (a military force) with additional personnel or equipment.
- v. To strengthen by adding extra support or material.
- v. To increase the number or amount of; augment.
- v. Psychology To reward (an experimental subject, for example) with a reinforcer subsequent to a desired response or performance.
- v. Psychology To encourage (a response) by means of a reinforcer.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To add new force, strength, or weight to; strengthen: as, to reinforce an argument.
- Specifically Milit., to strengthen with additional military or naval forces, as troops, ships, etc.
- To strengthen any part, of an object by an additional thickness, support, or other means.
- To enforce; compel.
- n. An additional thickness or support imparted to any part of an object in order to strengthen it. A strengthening patch or additional thickness sewed round a cringle or eyelet-hole in a sail or tentcover.
Wiktionary
- v. to strengthen, especially by addition or augmentation
- v. to emphasize or review
- v. to encourage a behavior or idea through repeated stimulus
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- v. strengthen and support with rewards
- v. make stronger
Etymologies
- re- + inforce (variant of enforce).
Examples
“Sure, if the message you want to reinforce is that working-class people are to be feared and loathed.”
“What I am trying to reinforce is that we all have experiences in our lives.”
“When the calls reinforce a message that a candidate is carrying, then they're not always a bad investment.”
Big News Orgs Picking Up On Magnitude Of McCain's Robo-Slime Campaign
“WHITFIELD: And on one of the issues or two of the issues that you both initially received a lot of, I guess, flack for from some segments of the community, you mention reinforce the English words and stay away from rap.”
“DAVID GRANGE (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, why don't we use the word reinforce what we have there in order to try to win this thing.”
“These crude labels reinforce a sense of division that cuts off the great majority of Americans from their own non-special interests -- the desire to work at a job that affords a decent living; to live in a decent home and secure health care; to educate their children, take a vacation every now and again, and eventually retire.”
The Huffington Post: Beyond Left, Right And Center: It's About Reality
“The last thing you want is to have your veep's name reinforce your opponent's brand—and the way Americans get their news often as background noise, half-listened to is a terrible environment into which to insert a Kaine to challenge a McCain.”
“That resolution created UNMOVIC, the replacement to UNSCOM and gave it the task of determining the remaining disarmament questions and to elaborate a plan to resolve those questions with Iraq's cooperation, in what was called reinforce ongoing monitoring and verification plan.”
“The ordinary sights consist of two pieces of bronze gun-metal, one of which, called the reinforce-sight, is a fixed point, firmly secured to the sight-mass, upon the upper surface of the gun between the trunnions.”
Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. 1866. Fourth edition.
“There is a need to consistently reinforce our commitment to diversity, multiculturalism and inclusivity, and the best way to reinforce is to reflect it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘reinforce’.
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Academic Vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3092 more...
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Do That Again! ~~ "Re-verbs"
List of verbs that begin with re-, meaning to repeat a specific action or process - reappraise, for example.
I'm also looking for words like repeat, replenish and rescind whose roots d...repeat, rescind, reappraise, refinish, restripe, reapply, resupply, refurbish, reposition, reoffend, redistribute, recoat and 183 more...
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Looks like a digraph, but isn't
mishap, mishear, boathouse, courthouse, chophouse, ungainly, anthill, pothole, haphazard, upholstery, hothead, upheaval and 16 more...
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2
transition, contents, conformity, division, labour, prominent, complexity, interrelationalship, similarity, note, tentative, convey and 66 more...
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Strengthen
reinforce, stiffen, harden, braze, imbue, fortify, dig in, armor
Prolagus Currently being trained for the 24th. Dec 7, 2010