enforcement

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: en=force=ment

CIDE DICTIONARY

enforcement, n. [Cf. OF. enforcement.].

•  The act of enforcing; compulsion.  [1913 Webster]

  "He that contendeth against these enforcements may easily master or resist them."  [1913 Webster]

  "Confess 't was hers, and by what rough enforcement
  You got it from her."  [1913 Webster]
•  A giving force to; a putting in execution.  [1913 Webster]

  "Enforcement of strict military discipline."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied.  [1913 Webster]

  "The rewards and punishment of another life, which the Almighty has established as the enforcements of his law."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

enforcement, n. the act or an instance of enforcing.

Idiom

enforcement notice Brit. an official notification to remedy a breach of planning legislation.

Etymology

ME f. OF, as ENFORCE + -MENT

THESAURUS

enforcement

carrying out, coaction, completion, compulsion, compulsiveness, constraint, discharge, effectuation, execution, forcing, fulfillment, inevitability, irresistibility, necessity, obligation, obligement, observance, prosecution, restraint, transaction

ROGET THESAURUS

enforcement

Compulsion

N compulsion, coercion, coaction, constraint, duress, enforcement, press, conscription, force, brute force, main force, physical force, the sword, ultima ratio, club law, lynch law, mob law, arguementum baculinum, le droit du plus fort, martial law, restraint, necessity, force majeure, Hobson's choice, compelling, coercive, coactive, inexorable, compulsory, compulsatory, obligatory, stringent, peremptory, forcible, not to be trifled with, irresistible, compelled, fain to, by force, by force of arms, on compulsion, perforce, vi et armis, under the lash, at the point of the sword, at the point of the bayonet, forcibly, by a strong arm, under protest, in spite of one's teeth, against one's will, nolens volens, by stress of circumstances, by stress of weather, under press of, de rigueur, with a gun to one's head, I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.