enchain

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Italic *en

Proto-Italic *en-

Latin in-

Old French en-bor.

Middle English en-

English en-

English chain

English enchain

From en- + chain.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

enchain (third-person singular simple present enchains, present participle enchaining, simple past and past participle enchained)

1. (transitive) To restrain with, or as if with, chains.
   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XIX, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 239:

     Powerful as were his own feelings, almost tempting him to throw himself at her feet, and make a full acknowledgment of his unvaried and never-ceasing love; yet his recollections of Harcourt, and circumstances therewith connected, the certainty of his expected arrival in England, restrained his utterance, threw a sort of spell over him, enchained by a species of self-command insupportably agonizing.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 152:

     [B]y this sign one enchained the demons of the air, the spirits of fire, the phantoms of water and ghosts of earth.

2. (transitive) To link together.

Derived terms

• disenchain
• enchainment

Translations

to restrain with, or as if with, chains

• Albanian: mbërthej (sq)
• Breton: chadennañ (br)
• Bulgarian: оковавам (bg) (okovavam)
• Czech: spoutat pf
• Greek: αλυσοδένω (el) (alysodéno)
• Ido: katenizar (io)
• Italian: incatenare (it), catenare (archaic, rare)
• Spanish: encadenar (es)
• Turkish: zincirlemek

  Ottoman Turkish: زنجیرلمك (zincirlemek)

Anagrams

• Chennai, inhance