underenforce en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From under- + enforce.
Meanings
-
(transitive) To enforce inadequately.
I don’t know if it’s underenforcing or overenforcing the law. But, at least in the data, we see that Black officers are less likely to make a drug arrest than the others.
2020 June 12, Kate Waldock and Luigi Zingales, “Should we defund the police?”, in Capitalisn't:But effective laws, already on the books, are pitifully underenforced by the Environmental Protection Agency.
2009 September 24, “How to Stop Contaminating the Water”, in The New York Times:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| underenforces | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| underenforced | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| underenforced | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| underenforcing | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |