All 8 Uses of
enable
in
War and Peace
- …of Bonaparte, encountering a population that was unfriendly to it, losing confidence in its allies, suffering from shortness of supplies, and compelled to act under conditions of war unlike anything that had been foreseen, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand men commanded by Kutuzov was hurriedly retreating along the Danube, stopping where overtaken by the enemy and fighting rearguard actions only as far as necessary to enable it to retreat without losing its heavy equipment.†
Chpt 2
- General Buxhowden was all but attacked and captured by a superior enemy force as a result of one of these maneuvers that enabled us to escape him.†
Chpt 5 *
- Pierre had none of the practical persistence that would have enabled him to attend to the business himself and so he disliked it and only tried to pretend to the steward that he was attending to it.†
Chpt 5
- More than once he had enabled Dolokhov to escape when pursued.†
Chpt 8
- She was glad such cares presented themselves, enabling her without scruple to forget her own grief.†
Chpt 10
- He felt that what he now said and did would be historical, and it seemed to him that it would now be best for him—whose grandeur enabled his son to play stick and ball with the terrestrial globe—to show, in contrast to that grandeur, the simplest paternal tenderness.†
Chpt 10
- He seemed carefully to cherish within himself the gloomy mood which alone enabled him to endure his position.†
Chpt 15
- For a reply to these questions the common sense of mankind turns to the science of history, whose aim is to enable nations and humanity to know themselves.†
Chpt 15
Definition:
-
(enable) to make possiblein various senses, including:
- to give someone the ability, knowledge, or authority to do something -- as in "The study will enable an informed discussion."
- to activate a computer system for use -- as in "You can enable the feature in the Settings Page."
- to permit someone to repeat bad behavior, so they reinforce the bad pattern -- as in "I don't want to enable her drug addiction."