enjoy

• enioy, injoy (obsolete)

From Middle English enjoyen, from Old French enjoier, anjoier, enjoer (“to give joy, receive with joy, rejoice”), equivalent to en- +‎ joy.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/, /ənˈd͡ʒɔɪ/, /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/

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• Hyphenation: en‧joy
• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

enjoy (third-person singular simple present enjoys, present participle enjoying, simple past and past participle enjoyed)

1. (transitive) To receive pleasure or satisfaction from something.

   Enjoy your holidays!   I enjoy dancing.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLVI, page 69:

     And we shall sit at endless feast,
     ⁠Enjoying each the other’s good;
     ⁠What vaster dream can hit the mood
     Of Love on earth?

   • 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

2. (transitive) To have the use or benefit of something.

   I plan to go travelling while I still enjoy good health.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 36:8:

     that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers

   • 1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 17”, in The Secret Adversary:

     Night and day were the same in this prison room, but Tommy's wrist-watch, which enjoyed a certain degree of accuracy, informed him that it was nine o'clock in the evening.

   • 1988, Harry G Frankfurt, The importance of what we care about: philosophical essays:

     This account fails to provide any basis for doubting that animals of subhuman species enjoy the freedom it defines.

3. (intransitive, India) To be satisfied or receive pleasure.

   I enjoyed a lot.

4. (transitive) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Never did thy Beautie […] so enflame my sense With ardor to enjoy thee.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (receive pleasure or satisfaction): appreciate, delight in, rejoice, relish
• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

• joyen, joyne