Dictionary

encroach en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɪŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/ (UK)
• /ɛŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English encrochen, from Old French encrochier (“to seize”), from Old French en- + croc (“hook”), of Germanic origin. More at crook.

Meanings

1. (rare) Encroachment.
   • 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. 2002, Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism, JHU Press, published 2002, page 116:
   • All that we see, all colours of all shade, By encroach of darkness made? 1805, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What is Life?:

Forms

encroach en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ɪŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/ (UK)
• /ɛŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English encrochen, from Old French encrochier (“to seize”), from Old French en- + croc (“hook”), of Germanic origin. More at crook.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) to seize, appropriate
2. (intransitive) To intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory.
   • Because change itself would absolutely stay-stable, and again, conversely, stability itself would change, if each of them encroached on the other. 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 252d:
   • I won’t encroach on your time any longer.
   • [D]rowſie drouping Age, / incroaching on apace, / With penſiue Plough will raze your hue / and Beauties beames deface. 1567, George Turbervil[l]e, “The Louer Exhorteth His Ladie to Take Time, while Time is”, in Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs and Sonets, with a Discourse of the Friendly Affections of Tymetes to Pyndara His Ladie. […], London: […] Henry Denham, →OCLC, folios 32, verso – 33, recto:
   • He never allows work to encroach upon his family life.
   • Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere. 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Tvvelue Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelue Monethes. Entitled to the Noble and Vertuous Gentleman most Worthy of all Titles both of Learning and Cheualrie M. Philip Sidney, London: Printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in Creede Lane neere vnto Ludgate at the signe of the gylden Tunne, and are there to be solde, OCLC 606515406; republished in Francis J[ames] Child, editor, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser: The Text Carefully Revised, and Illustrated with Notes, Original and Selected by Francis J. Child: Five Volumes in Three, volume III, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, published 1855, OCLC 793557671, page 406, lines 222–228
   • Gradually the negative feelings encroached into her work.
3. (intransitive) To advance gradually beyond due limits.

Forms

Deriveds

unencroached · encroachment · encroacher · encroachable · unencroachable

Synonyms

infringe · poach

Translations (53)

es menoscabar (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · de widerrechtlich vordringen (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · ca envair (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · cs narušovat (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru вто́ргнуться (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · fi loukata (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru покушаться (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ko 침입하다 (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · cmn 侵犯 (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · cmn 侵入 (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ar قَيَّدَ (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ar تَدَخَّلَ فِي (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ca ocupar (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · fi tunkeutua (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · de widerrechtlich eindringen (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · de Übergriffe begehen (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · bg злоупотребявам (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · hu betolakodik (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · da krænke (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · cs zasahovat (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · el επεκτείνομαι (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · bg злоупотребя (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · pl naruszać (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · bg навлизам незаконно (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · nl uitdijen (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · pt invadir (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · cs omezovat (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru посягну́ть (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru вторга́ться (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · ca usurpar (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ml കയ്യേറുക (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ja 侵入する (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · el επεμβαίνω (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · bg натрапя се (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru вто́ргнуться (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · es mermar (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · ru посяга́ть (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · bg натрапвам се (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · de sich widerrechtlich ausdehnen (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · es inmiscuirse (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · mi aurara (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · de übergriffig werden (to advance gradually beyond due limits) · nl binnendringen (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · cmn 侵害 (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ru вторга́ться (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · fi tunkeutua (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · hu betolakodik (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ar اِخْتَلَسَ (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · sv inkräkta (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · it invadere (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · es traspasar (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · ar أَزْعَجَ (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory) · mi auta (to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory)