infringe

infringe

English

Alternative forms

• enfringe (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin infringere (“to break off, break, bruise, weaken, destroy”), from in (“in”) + frangere (“to break”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɹɪnd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndʒ

Verb

infringe (third-person singular simple present infringes, present participle infringing, simple past and past participle infringed)

1. (transitive) Break or violate a treaty, a law, a right etc.
   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

2. (intransitive) Break in or encroach on something.
   • 1789, Second Amendment to the United States Constitution:

     A well regulated Militia, being neceſsary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Synonyms

(Break or violate a treaty, a law): transgress

Derived terms

• infringement
• infringer

Related terms

• infraction

Translations

to break or violate a treaty, a law, a right etc.

Bulgarian: нарушавам (bg) (narušavam) Catalan: infringir (ca) Dutch: schenden (nl) Esperanto: kontraŭi, malobei, malobservi French: enfreindre (fr) German: verletzen (de), übertreten (de), verstoßen (de) Ido: uzurpar (io) Italian: infrangere (it) Korean: 위반(違反)하다 (ko) (wibanhada), 침해(侵害)하다 (chimhaehada), 어기다 (ko) (eogida) Occitan: enfrànher (oc) Persian: نقض کردن‎ (naqz kardan) Polish: naruszać (pl) impf Portuguese: infringir (pt), transgredir (pt) Romanian: încălca (ro) Russian: нарушать (ru) (narušatʹ) Spanish: infringir (es) Turkish: ihlal etmek (tr)

Further reading

• infringe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• infringe in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• infringe at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Infinger, enfiring, refining

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Latin

Verb

īnfringe

1. second-person singular present active imperative of īnfringō

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Portuguese

Verb

infringe

1. inflection of infringir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

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Spanish

Verb

infringe

1. inflection of infringir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative