Verb

(enabling) (enabl)

To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.

* 1611 , King James Bible , "1 Tim. i. 12"

Who hath enabled me.

To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.

* 1711 , October 13, (Joseph Addison), (The Spectator) , number 195

Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}

To allow a way out or excuse for an action.

Verb

(head)

(enhance)

Verb

(enhanc)

(obsolete) To lift, raise up.

* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.i:

nought aghast, his mightie hand enhaunst : / The stroke down from her head vnto her shoulder glaunst.

(Wyclif Bible)

To augment or make something greater.

* Southey

The reputation of ferocity enhanced the value of their services, in making them feared as well as hated.

* 2000 , Mordecai Roshwald, Liberty: Its Meaning and Scope , page 155

A hereditary monarch relies on pomp and ceremony, which enhance the respect for the institution

To improve something by adding features.

* 1986 , Maggie Righetti, Knitting in Plain English , page 192

A pom-pom to top off a stocking cap, a fringe to feather the edge of a shawl, tassels to define the points of an afghan, these are just a few of the delightful little goodies that enhance handknit things.

To be raised up; to grow larger.

A debt enhances rapidly by compound interest.