Enforce vs If - What's the difference?
enforce | if |
(obsolete) To strengthen (a castle, town etc.) with extra troops, fortifications etc.
(obsolete) To intensify, make stronger, add force to.
(obsolete, reflexive) To exert oneself, to try hard.
*, Bk.VII:
*:I pray you enforce youreselff at that justis that ye may be beste, for my love.
To give strength or force to; to affirm, to emphasize.
:The victim was able to enforce his evidence against the alleged perpetrator.
(archaic) To compel, oblige (someone or something); to force.
*, I.2.4.iv:
*:Uladislaus the Second, King of Poland, and Peter Dunnius, Earl of Shrinehad been hunting late, and were enforced to lodge in a poor cottage.
*1899 , E. OE. Somerville and Martin Ross, Some Experiences of an Irish R.M.'', Great Uncle McCarthy :
*:In a few minutes I was stealthily groping my way down my own staircase, with a box of matches in my hand, enforced by scientific curiosity, but none the less armed with a stick.
To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force.
:The police are there to enforce the law.
(obsolete) To make or gain by force; to force.
:to enforce a passage
*Spenser
*:enforcing furious way
(obsolete) To put in motion or action by violence; to drive.
*Shakespeare
*:As swift as stones / Enforced from the old Assyrian slings.
(obsolete) To give force to; to strengthen; to invigorate; to urge with energy.
:to enforce arguments or requests
*Burke
*:enforcing sentiment of the thrust humanity
(obsolete) To urge; to ply hard; to lay much stress upon.
*Shakespeare
*:Enforce him with his envy to the people.
To prove; to evince.
:(Hooker)
Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that;
Supposing that;
Although;
(computing) In the event that a statement is true (a programming statement that acts in a similar manner).
Whether;
* 1715–1717 , , Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind , Canto III:
(usually hyperbolic) Even if; even in the circumstances that.
* 2004', (singers), “'''If It’s The Last Thing I Do” (song), in ''You Do Your Thing (album):
(informal) An uncertainty, possibility, condition, doubt etc.
* 1709, Susannah Centlivre, The Busy Body'', Act III, in John Bell (ed.), ''British Theater , J. Bell (1791),
* 1791 January, "Richard?on’s Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts''", in ''The Monthly Review , R. Griffiths,
* {{quote-news, year=2013, date=April 9, author=Andrei Lankov, title=Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff., work=New York Times
, passage=Even if they managed to strike Japan, the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons — a big if , given that they do not have a reliable delivery system — they could not save themselves from ultimate defeat.}}
As a verb enforce
is (obsolete|transitive) to strengthen (a castle, town etc) with extra troops, fortifications etc.As an initialism if is
interactive fiction.enforce
English
Alternative forms
* inforce (obsolete)Verb
(enforc)Derived terms
* enforcer * enforcementif
English
(wikipedia if)Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)- If it rains, I will get wet .
- I'd prefer it if you took your shoes off.
- He was a great friend, if a little stingy at the bar.
- If A, then B, else C.
- I don't know if I want to go or not.
- Quoth Matthew, “”
- If' it’s the last thing I do / '''If''' it takes me from Tubilo to Timbuktu / '''If''' it’s the last thing I do / I’m gonna dodge every road block, speed trap, county cop / To get my hands on you / ' If it’s the last thing I do.
Usage notes
* Specifically a subordinating conjunction.Derived terms
* iff * if and only if * if clause * if only * as if * even if * if so beAlternative forms
* ifen * iffenNoun
(en noun)page 59,
- Sir Fran.'' Nay, but Chargy, if——— ¶ ''Miran.'' Nay, Gardy, no Ifs'''.——Have I refus'd three northern lords, two British peers, and half a score knights, to have put in your ' Ifs ?
page 176,
- Well might Bergman add, (in his Sciographia,''), “if the compari?on that has been made, &c. be ju?t.” The pre?ent writer makes no ''ifs about the matter, and has ?uperadded a little inaccuracy of his own, […]
citation