Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To inspire with hope, courage, or confidence.
- transitive verb To give support to; foster.
- transitive verb To stimulate; spur.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To give courage to; inspire with courage, spirit, or firmness of mind; incite to action or perseverance.
- To help forward; promote; give support to: as, to
encourage manufactures. - To make stronger.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To give courage to; to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope; to raise, or to increase, the confidence of; to animate; enhearten; to incite; to help forward; -- the opposite of
discourage .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To mentally
support ; tomotivate , give courage, hope or spirit. - verb To
spur on , strongly recommend. - verb To
foster , givehelp orpatronage
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to
- verb spur on
- verb contribute to the progress or growth of
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Mansfield say that the object of the exception in regard to Spain and Portugal was to encourage -- yes, to _encourage_ -- the smuggling trade.
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In fact, the word encourage means “to put courage into, to give strength.”
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It's a great feeling to have a label encourage you to be more socially conscious and politically active.
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It's a great feeling to have a label encourage you to be more socially conscious and politically active.
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And I once again encourage any willing Ontario residents to email your representatives and press them to:
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Does this emphasis upon physical pain encourage the rest of us to dig deeply into the handbag of our experience and come up with something serviceable, when, in reality, the problem is not actually a matter of hurt at all?
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May I take this opportunity to again encourage NLM readers who are looking for spiritual reading to considering taking up The Rule of St. Benedict (a nice edition is published by Roman Catholic Books) and to consider monastic retreats and the monastic vocation as part of fostering a liturgical life.
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And another thing that I'd like to encourage is colleges of education.
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May I also take this opportunity to again encourage our priests, religious and laymen and women to also consider coordinating and beginning your own equivalent types of pilgrimages and retreats in your own regions.
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And another thing that I'd like to encourage is colleges of education.
oroboros commented on the word encourage
encoURaGE
April 22, 2008
pterodactyl commented on the word encourage
Has anyone else noticed that "encourage" has lost the meaning of "give courage to" and is now just a synonym for "urge"? I don't understand this trend. Why change the meaning of "encourage", thus losing the original utility of the word, just to create a cumbersome synonym (two extra syllables!) for a word that's perfectly fine on its own?
October 3, 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word encourage
Clearly a thing we should change; and I would encourage you in your efforts, Mr. Pterodactyl.
October 4, 2009
reesetee commented on the word encourage
Good point, ptero. It reminds me of the sad, sad case of the word awesome.
October 5, 2009