▪ I. enemy, n. and a.
(ˈɛnəmɪ)
Forms: 4–7 enemi(e, -mye, enmie, -y(e, 4–6 enne-, ennymy(e, 5–7 enimie, -ye, (4 ennymei, en(e)me, 5 annemy, elmy, enmei, 6 ennimie), 4– enemy.
[a. OF. enemi (Fr. ennemi), anemi, -y, corresp. to Pr. enemie, Cat. enemig, Sp. enemigo, It. nemico:—L. inimīcus, f. in- negative prefix + amīcus friendly, friend.]
A. n. I. An unfriendly or hostile person.
1. a. One that cherishes hatred, that wishes or seeks to do ill to another; also in weaker sense, an adversary, antagonist, opponent. Const. of (or genitive case), to.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 14827 Quar es he þat godds enemy? c 1340 Ibid. 25350 (Fairf.) Forgiue þine eneme. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 148 He..biddeþ [vs]..Blessen vr enemys. 1398 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 5 Enpresoned falslich by enme. c 1440 York Myst. xvii. 329 Herowde is oure enmye. 1538 Starkey England ii. 49 The handys..defend the rest of the body from the iniury of ennymys vtward. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. v. 143 Prodigious birth of Loue it is to me, That I must loue a loathed Enemie. 1600 ― A.Y.L. ii. iii. 18 Within this roofe the enemie of all your graces liues. 1653 Trial Major Faulconer in Howell St. Trials (1816) V. 359 He was an enemy to himself in spending his estate. 1664 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 98 A worke of their enimyes and not of their neighbours and friends. 1792 Anecd. W. Pitt I. ii. 44 An enemy to his fellow-subjects. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 215 A stake was driven into the ground before his door, as a token that he was a public enemy. 1859 Tennyson Geraint & Enid 282 Where can I get me..arms to fight my enemy? 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 12 The man of the world, that worst enemy of the world. |
b. spec. the Enemy: the Devil (cf. fiend). Also (our) ghostly or great enemy; the old enemy, † the enemy of hell; the enemy of mankind, enemy of souls, etc. (b) enemy of the people, a common form of indictment used by popular leaders, esp. Communists, against their political opponents.
| 1382 Wyclif Luke x. 19, I haue ȝouun to ȝou power of defoulinge, other tredinge..on al the vertu of the enemy. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 131 The olde enemy cryde openliche in þe ayer. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) 9 That tentacyoun Betoknyth..Of oure gostly enmye. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 125 She had vij husbondes, the whiche were mischeued and slayne bi the Annemy of helle. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 4 The prynce of derknes..our goostly ennemy the deuyll. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 221 Be illusion of the ennimie. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Visit. Sick, Defend him from the danger of the enemy. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 273 ¶8 Another Principal Actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of Mankind. 1820 Scott Abbot xvi, I defy the Old Enemy to unmask me when I choose to keep my vizard on. |
| (b) 1888 E. M. Aveling tr. An Enemy of Society iv. in H. Ellis Plays by Ibsen 288 He's an enemy of the people! 1904 Conrad Nostromo iii. xiii. 477 Comrade Fidanza,..you have refused all aid from that doctor. Is he really a dangerous enemy of the people? 1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Yr. 1938 680/1 The purge against Trotskyists and the hunt for ‘enemies of the people and socialism’. 1955 Treatment Brit. P.O.W.'s in Korea (H.M.S.O.) 13 The battered condition of those who had just returned to the compound as an example of what could happen to anyone who showed himself to be ‘an enemy of the people’. 1958 Economist 15 Nov. 589/2 The deputy minister of the interior recently admitted that about 700,000 enemies of the people..still exist in Hungary. |
c. the great or last enemy: death (cf. 1 Cor. xv. 26).
| 1885 Border Lances 166 Looking to see the great Enemy arise from the waters, and come up to enter within the house where the knight lay. |
d. transf. and fig. (a) One who hates or opposes (a cause, custom, state of things). (b) Something that operates prejudicially upon, counteracts the action of.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. xx. (1495) 237 Eyen ben enmyes and theues. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 263 So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith. 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. ii. §3 (1675) 173 To destroy these Enemies [Palmer worms], you should, etc. 1679 Penn Addr. Prot. i. viii. (1692) 31 Vice, the Enemy of Religion, is at the same time, the Enemy of Humane Society. 1782 Let. in Amyot Windham (1812) I. 18 One was an enemy to thinking;—the other to drinking. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 229 The true judge..ought to be the enemy of all pandering to the pleasure of the spectators. |
e. Phr. (to be) nobody's enemy but one's own: (to be) responsible only for one's own misfortunes.
| [1592 Greene Upst. Courtier sig. H2r, I thinke him an honest man if he would but liue within his compasse, and generally no mannes foe but his owne.] 1639 J. Clarke Parœmiologia 21/1 He is no mans enemy but his owne. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. xi. 242, I had been nobody's enemy but my own. 1849 Lytton Caxtons II. xiii. iv. 325 Guy Bolding, with all his faults, was one of those excellent creatures who are nobody's enemies but their own. 1850 Dickens Dav. Copp. xxv. 263 He is quite a good fellow—nobody's enemy but his own. |
2. One belonging to a hostile army or nation; an armed foe.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6592, I ledd ȝou thoru þe strand, Vte of all ȝour enmys hand. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1204 And harde hurles þurȝ þe oste, er enmies hit wyste. 1393 Gower Conf. III. 15 The higher hond he [Bacchus] hadde And victoire of his enemies. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 121 His Highness schal be..of Power to subdue his Ennymyes. 1461 J. Paston Let. 23 Aug. in Paston Lett. No. 410 II. 42 God..send yowe vyttorye of yowr elmyes. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. v. iv. 22 No Enemy Shall euer take aliue the Noble Brutus. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ix. (1843) 581/2 To take charge of those horse whom only their friends feared, and their enemies laughed at. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 350 ¶1 The Relief which a Man of Honour would bestow upon an Enemy barbarously treated. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. 83 A rebel is not an enemy. 1874 Bancroft Footpr. Time i. 46 All outside the family, tribe, or nation were usually held as enemies. |
3. a. The hostile force. Originally only as quasi-personified, with concord in sing.; now also as collect. with concord in pl. Also, a hostile ship.
| 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iv. iii. 199 'Tis better that the Enemie seeke vs. 1793 Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 159 They strike at the enemy in his weakest and most vulnerable part. 1813 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. XI. 35 To draw the attention of the enemy to this quarter. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. vi. i. (1866) 771 He sprang on board the enemy alone. 1867 Pearson Early & Mid. Ages Eng. I. 471 A storm of arrows completed the rout of the first line of the enemy; and their men-at-arms were, etc. |
b. fig.
| 1879 Proctor Pleas. Ways Sc. viii. 174 Cold is the real enemy which bars the way towards the Pole. |
c. colloq. or slang. how goes the enemy: = ‘what is the time?’
| 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xix. 1839 Bailey Festus xiv. (1848) 154. |
† II. 4. [app. a subst. use of B. 1.] = enmity. Obs. rare.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. viii. xiii. (1495) 320 Vnder the planete Mars is conteyned werre and batayle, prison and enmye. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 15 Þat cursing be riȝtwyse longen [þre condiciouns]..riȝtwisnes in þe kirk..vnriȝtwisnes in þe man cursid, & enmey of þe obstinat. Ibid. 87 On sleþ an oþer bi enemy. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 212 For to him he hadde a prevyȝe enmyȝe. |
III. Comb.: instrumental, as enemy-controlled, enemy-held, enemy occupied adjs.
| 1918 Act 8 & 9 Geo. V c. 31 §8 Any property belonging to a company which is an enemy-controlled corporation. |
| 1937 Daily Tel. 19 Oct. 15/2 Enemy-held Channel ports would no more have deprived England of the command of the sea than enemy-held Ostend and Zeebrugge did. 1946 W. S. Churchill Secret Session Speeches 45 The enemy-held Atlantic ports and airfields. |
| 1919 J. M. Keynes Econ. Conseq. Peace (1920) 108 To maintain the civilian French population in the enemy-occupied districts. 1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Rev. iii. 38 The enemy-occupied countries. |
B. adj. (In many examples the word admits of being regarded as the n. used attrib.)
† 1. Adverse, hostile, ill-disposed, unfriendly. Const. to, with. Obs.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 12930 (Trin.) Þe enemy fend þo him [Jesus] souȝt. 1382 Wyclif 1 Cor. xv. 26 Forsoth at the laste, the enemy deeth schal be distroyed. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (1847) 63 Enemie to muses is wretched povertie. 1553 N. Grimalde tr. Cicero's Duties (c 1600) 131 b To mans nature..cruelty is most enimy. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 447 Your wife..would not hold out enemy for euer. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 100 The enemy beasts to harts:—Harts are opposed by wolves. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. 137, I have beene shipwrackt, yet am not enemy with the sea or winds. 1654 Earl of Orrery Parthenissa (1676) 125 He has nothing that's enemy to us but his name. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. vii. Some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver. |
2. Of or pertaining to a hostile army or nation; standing in the relation of an enemy, hostile.
| 1388 Wyclif Ecclus. xlvi. 7 He made assauȝt aȝens the folk enemy [1382 enmyable folc]. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. xi. viii. (1622) 149 Being captaines of the enemy nations. 1623 Bingham Xenophon 82 The Countrey is enemy, and we in danger to lose many Souldiers. 1653 Holcroft Procopius iv. 149 Narses medled not with Ariminum..nor with any other Enemy-towne. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 116/2 The Carduchi, a People Enemy to the Persians. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 429 There is a party of enemy Indians coming that way. 1793 T. Jefferson Writ. IV. 25 (1859) Enemy goods are lawful prize. 1881 J. Westlake in Academy 15 Jan. 14/3 Distinguishing..between the enemy character of individuals and of their State. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. III. vi. 108 The young..have either emotion or imagination to fold them defensively from an enemy world. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 5 Aug. 6/3 Stock requisitioned during the late war from private enemy owners. 1909 Ibid. 5 Apr. 1/3 The destination..is presumed to exist if the goods are consigned to enemy authorities, or to a contractor established in the enemy country who..supplies articles of this kind to the enemy. Ibid. 2/1 If goods consigned to any trader supplying an enemy population could be seized. 1915 J. H. Morgan tr. German War Bk. 113 Usages of war in regard to enemy territory and its inhabitants. 1915 N.Y. Tribune 30 Mar. 8/3 British naval officers in their reports have also referred to ‘enemy’ ships and fleets. 1942 E. Waugh Put out more Flags iii. v. 233 ‘No, not an enemy agent.’ ‘Certainly not, sir, but a frivolous, talkative girl.’ 1946 ‘G. Orwell’ Crit. Ess. 137 Koestler..was once again thrown into prison as an enemy alien. |
▪ II. † ˈenemy, v. Obs. rare—1.
[f. prec.]
intr. To be hostile to. Hence † ˈenemying vbl. n.
| 1382 Wyclif Ps. xxxiv. 19 Ouer ioȝe not to me that enemyen [1388 ben aduersaries] to me wickeli. 1529 S. Fish Suppl. 9 So then here was enmying, enuying, laughing, etc. |
▪ III. enemy
dial. corruption of anemone.
| 18.. Tennyson North. Farmer ix, They fun 'um theer a-laäid of 'is faäce Doon i' the woild 'enemies. |