From Middle English enforcen, from Old French enforcier, from Late Latin infortiāre, from in- + fortis ("strong").

• (America) enPR: ĭnfôrsʹ, ĕn-, IPA: /ɪnˈfoɹs/, /ɛn-/
• (RP) IPA: /ɪnˈfɔːs/, /ɛn-/
• (rhotic, non-horse-hoarse) enPR: -fōrsʹ, IPA: /-ˈfo(ː)ɹs/
• (non-rhotic, non-horse-hoarse) IPA: /-ˈfoəs/

enforce (enforces, present participle enforcing; simple past and past participle enforced)

1. To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force. [from 17th c.]

   The police are there to enforce the law.

   • 1929, Chiang Kai-shek, quoted in “Nationalist Notes,” Time (magazine), 11 February, 1929,^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20130721131625/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,737333,00.html]}

     Our task is only half finished. It will be my duty to enforce the decisions of the conference and I hereby pledge myself to that end.

2. To give strength or force to; to affirm, to emphasize. [from 15th c.]

   The victim was able to enforce his evidence against the alleged perpetrator.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To strengthen (a castle, town etc.) with extra troops, fortifications etc. [14th–18th c.]
4. (obsolete, transitive) To intensify, make stronger, add force to. [14th–18th c.]
5. (obsolete, reflexive) To exert oneself, to try hard. [14th–17th c.]
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book VII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC ↗:

     I pray you enforce youreselff at that justis that ye may be beste, for my love.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

6. (obsolete) To compel, oblige (someone or something); to force. [from 16th c.]
   • 1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):

     Sweete prince I come, these these thy amorous lines, / Might haue enforst me to haue swum from France, / And like Leander gaspt vpon the sande, / So thou wouldst smile and take me in thy armes.

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection iv:

     Uladislaus the Second, King of Poland, and Peter Dunnius, Earl of Shrine […] had been hunting late, and were enforced to lodge in a poor cottage.

7. (obsolete) To make or gain by force; to force.

   to enforce a passage

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, page 106 ↗:

     Ne shame he thought to shonne so hideous might, / The ydle stroke, enforcing furious way, / Missing the marke of his misaymed sight / Did fall to ground […]

8. (obsolete) To put in motion or action by violence; to drive.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene ii ↗:

     Auster and Aquilon with winged Steeds
     All ſweating, tilt about the watery heauens,
     With ſhiuering ſpeares enforcing thunderclaps,
     And from their ſhields ſtrike flames of lightening

   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene vii]:

     If they’ll do neither, we will come to them, / And make them skirr away, as swift as stones / Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:

9. (obsolete) To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to urge with energy.

   to enforce arguments or requests

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, “Letter I. On the Overtures of Peace.”, in Two Letters Addressed to a Member of the Present Parliament on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France, London: […] F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], published 20 October 1796, →OCLC ↗, page 60 ↗:

     [T]he eloquence of the declaration, not contradicting, but enforcing sentiments of the truest humanity, has left stings that have penetrated more than skin-deep into my mind […]

10. (obsolete) To urge; to ply hard; to lay much stress upon.
    • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

      In this point charge him home, that he affects / Tyrannical power: if he evade us there, / Enforce him with his envy to the people, / And that the spoil got on the Antiates / Was ne’er distributed.

11. (obsolete) To prove; to evince.
    • 1594, Richard Hooker, “A Preface to Them that Seeke (as They Terme It) the Reformation of Lawes and Orders Ecclesiasticall, in the Church of England ↗”, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 3rd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC ↗, book I:

      But what argument are ye able to shew, whereby it was euer prooued by Caluin, that any one sentence of Scripture doth necessarily enforce these things, or the rest wherein your opinion concurreth with his against the orders of your owne Church?

• German: vollstrecken
• Italian: applicare, rispettare, fare rispettare
• Spanish: hacer cumplir, hacer respetar, aplicar, enforzar

• Italian: far valere

• French: renforcer
• Italian: rafforzare
• Portuguese: reforçar
• Spanish: reforzar

• French: intensifier
• Italian: intensificare
• Spanish: intensificar

• German: durchsetzen
• Italian: sforzare

• French: imposer, obliger
• Italian: costringere, forzare, obbligare, imporre