Enable vs Let - What's the difference?
enable | let |
To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
* 1611 , King James Bible , "1 Tim. i. 12"
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
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To allow a way out or excuse for an action.
(label) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without (to)).
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*(Bible), (w) viii. 28
*:Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is
*1971 , , (The Tombs of Atuan)
*:He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To leave.
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*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets .
(label) To allow the release of (a fluid).
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(label) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
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(label) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out .
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To cause (+ bare infinitive).
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*1818 , (John Keats), "To—":
*:Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand.
(archaic) To hinder, prevent; to obstruct (someone or something).
* Bible, 2. Thessalonians ii. 7
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To prevent or obstruct (to) do something, or (that) something happen.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts VIII:
An obstacle or hindrance.
*, II.16:
*:Paulus Emilius'' going to the glorious expedition of ''Macedon'', advertised the people of ''Rome'' during his absence not to speake of his actions: ''For the licence of judgements is an especiall let in great affaires.
*Latimer
*:Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.
(tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.
As verbs the difference between enable and let
is that enable is to give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong while let is to allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without {{term|to}}).As a noun let is
an obstacle or hindrance.enable
English
(Webster 1913)Verb
(enabling) (enabl)- Who hath enabled me.
- Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
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.}}
Antonyms
* disableDerived terms
* enabler * enablement * re-enable * reenableExternal links
* * *Anagrams
*let
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) leten, .Verb
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",
- Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost / and salewed the peple and the kyng / and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde / Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne / And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij kny?tes of the table round in their pauelions
Synonyms
* (to allow) allow, permitUsage notes
The use of "let" to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative , in the sense of "to allow". For example, the sentence "Let me go to the store." could either be a second-person imperative of "let" (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of "go" (not implying any such preventer).Etymology 2
(etyl) . More at late, delay.Verb
- He who now letteth' will ' let , until he be taken out of the way.
- Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, / And lets me from the saddle.
- And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?