enough
English
Alternative forms
- enow
- anough (obsolete)
- aneuch, eneuch, eneugh (Scotland)
- 'nough
- enuff
Etymology
From Middle English ynogh, from Old English ġenōg (“enough”), from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz (“enough”) (compare Scots eneuch, West Frisian genôch, Dutch genoeg, German genug, Low German noog, Danish nok, Swedish nog, Icelandic nógur), from *ganuganą 'to suffice' (compare Old English ġeneah), or from *ga- + an unattested *nōgaz, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂nó(n)ḱe (“he has reached, attained”), perfective of *h₂neḱ- (“to reach”) (compare Old Irish tánaic (“he arrived”), Latin nancisci (“to get”), Lithuanian nèšti (“to carry”), Albanian kënaq (“to please, satisfy”), Ancient Greek ἐνεγκεῖν (enenkeîn, “to carry”).).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈnʌf/
Audio (RP) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /iˈnʌf/, /ə-/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌf
Determiner
enough
- Sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate.
- I've already had enough coffee today.
- There is food enough for us all (old-fashioned) .
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 15:17:
- How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare!
Descendants
- Sranan Tongo: nofo
Translations
sufficient
|
Adverb
enough
- Sufficiently.
- I cannot run fast enough to catch up to them.
- Are you man enough to fight me?
- You've worked enough; rest for a bit.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess:
- ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’
- Fully; quite; used after adjectives to express slight augmentation of the positive degree, and sometimes equivalent to very.
- He is ready enough to accept the offer.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
- I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio.
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
- “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
- Used after certain adverbs to emphasise that a quality is notable, unexpected, etc.
- Talking of Mr Smith, funnily enough, I saw him just the other day.
- I left my camera on the train, but luckily enough someone handed it in to lost property.
Usage notes
- As an adverb, in modern English, enough almost always follows the verb, adjective or adverb that it qualifies. In older language, cases where it precedes the modified word, e.g. "He was enough satisfied" or "I was not enough recompensed", may be seen.
Translations
sufficiently
|
Pronoun
enough
- A sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc.
- I have enough (of it) to keep me going.
- Enough of you are here to begin the class.
- Get some more plates. There aren’t enough yet.
- Not enough is known yet about the causes of the pandemic.
- There wasn't enough of an economic surplus.
Translations
a sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc
|
Interjection
enough!
- Stop! Don't do that any more!
- I'm sick of you complaining! Enough!
Translations
stop!
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Noun
enough (plural enoughs)
- (rare, chiefly in the plural) An instance of being sufficient, or of doing something sufficiently.
- 1909, Edwin Balmer, Waylaid by Wireless: A Suspicion, a Warning, a Sporting Proposition, and a Transatlantic Pursuit, page 29:
- And she was neither beautiful nor handsome, but just at the point halfway between which a girl of twenty-three reaches who inherits good features and healthful figure, and who has learned to dance well, ride well, study enough, golf enough, and has attained the thousand other "well and enoughs" which include talking well and listening enough, and allow a woman to be liked and loved with so little consciousness that she never suspects she is particularly liked at all.
- 1909, Edwin Balmer, Waylaid by Wireless: A Suspicion, a Warning, a Sporting Proposition, and a Transatlantic Pursuit, page 29:
Derived terms
terms derived from all parts of speech
- big and ugly enough
- big enough and ugly enough
- can't get enough
- close enough
- close enough for government work
- cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
- enough is as good as a feast
- enough is enough
- enough is too much
- enough sense to pound sand into a rathole
- enough to choke a horse
- enough to make a cat laugh
- enough to make the angels weep
- enough to put in one's eye
- fair enough
- getting enough
- give him enough rope and he'll hang himself
- given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
- give one enough rope
- good enough
- good enough for government work
- good enough for jazz
- good enough to eat
- leave well enough alone
- let well enough alone
- mad enough to chew nails
- man enough
- not enough room to swing a cat
- old enough to vote
- perfect is the enemy of good enough
- right enough
- strong enough to trot a mouse on
- sure-enough, sure enough
- throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick
- time enough
- too many chiefs and not enough indians, too many chiefs and not enough Indians
- weigh enough
- woman enough