Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To enter by force in order to conquer or pillage.
  • intransitive verb To enter as if by invading; overrun or crowd:
  • intransitive verb To enter and proliferate in bodily tissue, as a pathogen.
  • intransitive verb To encroach or intrude on; violate.
  • intransitive verb To make an invasion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • . To go into or upon; enter.
  • To enter or penetrate into as an enemy; go or pass into or over with hostile intent, as in a military incursion.
  • Hence To come into or upon as if by a hostile incursion; make an attack upon.
  • To intrude upon; infringe; encroach on; violate: as, to invade the privacy of a family.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To go into or upon; to pass within the confines of; to enter; -- used of forcible or rude ingress.
  • transitive verb To enter with hostile intentions; to enter with a view to conquest or plunder; to make an irruption into; to attack.
  • transitive verb To attack; to infringe; to encroach on; to violate.
  • transitive verb To grow or spread over; to affect injuriously and progressively.
  • intransitive verb To make an invasion.

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

  • verb transitive To move into.
  • verb transitive To enter by force in order to conquer.
  • verb transitive To infest or overrun.

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

  • verb penetrate or assault, in a harmful or injurious way
  • verb to intrude upon, infringe, encroach on, violate
  • verb march aggressively into another's territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation
  • verb occupy in large numbers or live on a host

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French invader, from Latin invādere : in-, in; see in– + vādere, to go.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin invādō, invādere ("enter, invade").

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Examples

  • I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

    Chapter 11 2010

  • Having a clear strategy in place _before_ you invade is just confusing and demoralizing.

    Bash: GOP weighs in quickly 2009

  • Granted, this was part of the initial plan of having the 4th Infantry Division invade from the north (nixed by the Turkish parliament), but the same result could have been achieved (albeit, more slowly) by coming from the South and bypassing Baghdad initially.

    Matthew Yglesias » Relief 2007

  • i rather take a risk on OBAMA THAN watching mccain invade iran and the rest of the middle east for oil and eventually china FOR RICE .......

    Obama still struggles with some Democrats 2008

  • To say that Bush was planning to invade is not unlike saying he had an invasion plan if we chose to invade (for those to definitively say one or the other would mean they were privvy to top secret meetings … unfortunately, these statements often come from those who surmise) … the difference could very much be spin or perspective, but that’s really neither here nor there.

    Think Progress » Rumsfeld on Iran Today = Rumsfeld on Iraq in 2002 2006

  • (You wouldn’t want to invade from the East anyway, because of the mountainous terrain.)

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Vietnam Comparison — A Closer Look At The Numbers: 2004

  • The most serious promise that the members gave each other was the promise that is necessary to have all lesser promises make sense in a world in which nations are the members, and that was the promise not to aggressively invade, that is not to invade without the consent of other nations on the Security Council including all of those members that hold a veto power as permanent Security Council members.

    Do Not Listen To The Evil Noises 2009 2009

  • Robo calls invade our privacy and you simply cannot have a two-way discussion with a robot.

    Minnesota 2008

  • Robo calls invade our privacy and you simply cannot have a two-way discussion with a robot.

    Press Release 2008

  • No one moved for a few minutes; Janeway was making sure all the turbolifts made it to the bridge before she gave the word to invade.

    STRANGE NEW WORLDS Dean Wesley Smith 1998

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