Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes another; a foe.
  • noun One who opposes or is hostile to an idea or cause.
  • noun Something destructive or injurious in its effects.
  • noun A hostile power or force, such as a nation.
  • noun A member or unit of such a force.
  • noun A group of foes or hostile forces.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or being a hostile power or force.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be hostile.
  • noun A dialectal (Scotch) corruption of emmet.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Specifically An opposing military force. See the enemy, below.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun The adversary of mankind; the devil; Satan.
  • noun Time: as, how goes the enemy? (= what o'clock is it?); to kill the enemy.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A dialectal corruption of anemone.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One hostile to another; one who hates, and desires or attempts the injury of, another; a foe; an adversary
  • noun (Mil.) the hostile force. In this sense it is construed with the verb and pronoun either in the singular or the plural, but more commonly in the singular.
  • adjective obsolete Hostile; inimical.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
  • noun A hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation.
  • noun An alliance of such forces.
  • adjective of, relating to, or belonging to an enemy

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an opposing military force
  • noun a personal enemy
  • noun an armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force)
  • noun any hostile group of people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English enemi, from Old French, from Latin inimīcus : in-, not; see in– + amīcus, friend.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French enemi, anemi (Modern French: ennemi), from Latin inimīcus, from in- ("not") + amīcus ("friend")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word enemy.

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 John Ross 1816

  • He is, indeed, called an enemy to pilgrims, and the laft enemy*.

    Christian memoirs, or, a review of the present state of religion in England : in the form of a new pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem .. 1776

  • 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.

    Ghosts of Broadcast Journalism Past 2009

  • The Obama administration has since abandoned using the term "enemy combatant."

    CNN.com 2011

  • 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.

    Your Right Hand Thief 2008

  • 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.

    Archive 2008-04-01 2008

  • 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.

    'Enemy Combatant' Label Is Dropped for Detainees 2009

  • LOU DOBBS, HOST: Tonight the Obama administration abandons the term enemy combatants for terror suspects held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    CNN Transcript Mar 13, 2009 2009

  • The use of the term enemy is significant to me, as is the word speaking.

    Speaking with the Enemy Steven Barnes 2009

  • Our main enemy is not primarily the Mahdi army or any of the factions in Iraq but Ahmadinejad and the mullahocracy in Iran.

    Sound Politics: "Double Down"? 2006

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Sounds like the letters N M E.

    October 28, 2009