encroach

English

Etymology

From Old French encrochier (“seize”), from en- + croc (“hook”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ɛnˈkɹəʊtʃ/, /ɪnˈkɹəʊtʃ/

  Rhymes: -əʊtʃ

Verb

encroach (third-person singular simple present encroaches, present participle encroaching, simple past and past participle encroached)

1. (transitive, obsolete) to seize, appropriate
2. (intransitive) to intrude unrightfully on someone else's rights or territory
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 252d.

     Because change itself would absolutely stay-stable, and again, conversely, stability itself would change, if each of them encroached on the other.

3. (intransitive) to advance gradually beyond due limits

Translations

to intrude unrightfully on someone else's rights or territory

Arabic: يختلس (ar) Bulgarian: навлизам незаконно (bg) Catalan: usurpar (ca), ocupar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 侵害 (cmn) (qīnhài), 侵犯 (cmn) (qīnfàn), 侵入 (zh) (qīnrù) Czech: zasahovat (cs) Danish: krænke (da) Dutch: binnendringen (nl) Finnish: tunkeutua (fi) German: eingreifen (de)

Italian: invadere (it) Japanese: 侵入する (ja) (しんにゅうする, shin'nyū-suru) Korean: 침입하다 (ko) (chimip-hada) Polish: naruszać (pl) Portuguese: invadir (pt) Russian: вторгаться (ru) (vtorgát'sja) impf., вторгнуться (ru) (vtórgnut'sja) pf., посягать (ru) (posjagát') impf., посягнуть (ru) (posjagnút') pf., покушаться (ru) Spanish: inmiscuirse (es) Swedish: inkräkta (sv)

to advance gradually beyond due limits

Catalan: envair (ca) Finnish: tunkeutua (fi) German: ausdehnen (de)

Russian: вторгаться (ru) (vtorgát'sja) impf., вторгнуться (ru) (vtórgnut'sja) pf.

Derived terms

• encroacher
• encroachment

Noun

encroach (plural encroaches)

1. (rare) Encroachment.
   • 1805, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘What is Life?’:

     All that we see, all colours of all shade, / By encroach of darkness made?

   • 2002, Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism, JHU Press 2002, p. 116:

     Shorey was among the most vociferous opponents of the encroach of scientism and utilitarianism in education and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Translations

• Finnish: kajoaminen