enemy 
en·emy (en′ə mē)
noun pl. -·mies
- a person who hates another, and wishes or tries to injure him; foe
- a nation or force hostile to another; military or wartime adversary
- troops, fleet, ship, member, etc. of a hostile nation
- a person hostile to an idea, cause, etc.
- anything injurious or harmful
Etymology: ME & OFr enemi < L inimicus, unfriendly, enemy < in-, not + amicus, friend: see amiable
adjective
- Obsolete hostile
- of an enemy; of a hostile nation
enemy
n.
A national or public opponent
foe, attacker, antagonist, opponent, adversary, public enemy, criminal, opposition, fifth column, enemy within the gates, borer from within, saboteur, spy, foreign agent, assassin, murderer, betrayer, traitor, terrorist, revolutionary, seditionist, rebel, guerrilla(s), invader, the other side, hostile nation, hostile forces, villain, bad guy*. Antonyms
ally, confederate, supporter*. A personal opponent
rival, opponent, competitor, foe, antagonist, adversary, assailant, nemesis, archenemy, bête noire (French), detractor, prosecutor, inquisitor, informer, calumniator, falsifier, disputant, traducer, asperser, defiler, defamer, slanderer, backbiter, vilifier. Antonyms
friend*, supporter, benefactor. See syn. study at opponent.opponent.
Converse of object
- defeat: This passage, however, tells us that he is also a defeated enemy.
- engage: Our countries are no longer mortal enemies engaged in a worldwide Cold War.
- destroy: When you destroy an enemy your score will go up.
- kill: He sees a bomb blast as it kills the enemy.
- confront: It is particularly unfortunate and nasty when we have to confront enemies in our own class.
- fight: Jordan: Only in the first prolog level, does the Prince fight human enemies.
Adjective modifier
- sworn: All the time we use this word we are playing into the hands of our sworn enemies.
- deadly: Complacency, satisfaction with yourself, is your soul's most deadly enemy.
- mortal: Our countries are no longer mortal enemies engaged in a worldwide Cold War.
- bitter: What elegies can be compared with the pathos of David's lament over Jonathan and his bitter enemy Saul?
- bad: Indeed the Grand Lodge of Ireland is its own worst enemy.
Modifies a noun
- combatant: They are considered enemy combatants, according to a new definition introduced by the American administration.
- aircraft: The air defenses fail to destroy a single enemy aircraft.
- territory: Well, here we are, deep, deep in enemy territory.
- trench: The enemy trench was known as " Nash Alley " .
- troop: At around 10am on June 7th, they were engaged in bitter fighting with enemy troops.
- fighter: The marines know there is little hope of survival even when enemy fighters fail to open fire.
Noun used with modifier
He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he thinks little of God.
Will they ever forgive me for writing Roughing It? They know that it was thetruth, but have I not been a mark for every vulgar editor of a village journal, throughout the length and breadth of the land to hurl a stone at, and point out as the enemy to Canada.
There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and mastersthefearofdeath. And therefore death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.
No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.
I am really persuaded that if we were to inquire of all the Cities whichhave fallen by Siege into the Power of new Masters, who it was that subjected and overcame them, they would tell you, the Architect; and that they were strong enough to have despised the armed Enemy, but not to withstand the Shocks of the Engines, the Violence of the Machines and the Force of other Instruments of War with whichthe Architect, distressed, demolished and ruinated them.On the contrary, they would inform you that their greatest Defense lay in the Art and Assistance of the Architect.
It takes yourenemyand your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Say not the struggle naught availeth The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain.
Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: Do be my enemyöfor friendship's sake.
All through that summer at ease we lay, And daily from the turret wall We watched the mowers in the hay And the enemy half a mile away. They seemed no threat to us at all.
The Enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance, and sown the tares of spiritual errors.
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him,Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns instinctively to long words and exhausted idiomsölike cuttlefish squirting out ink.
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.
There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.
Fretting grief the enemy of life.
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien. The best is the enemy of the good.
Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy of the human race.
As Lord Chesterfield said ofthegenerals of his day,'I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do'.
England is a great and powerful nation, foremost in human progress, enemy to despotism, the only safe refuge for the exile, friend of the oppressed. If ever England should be so circumstanced as to require the help of anyally, cursed be the Italian who would not step forward with me in her defence.
In politics, madame, you need two things: friends, but above all an enemy.
Complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor. Never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.
The innocent and the beautiful Have no enemy but time.
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
If thine enemy behungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the L shall reward thee.
You are ordered abroad as a soldier of the King to help our French comrades against the invasion of a common enemy In this new experience you may find temptations both in wine and women.You must entirely resist both temptations, and while treating all women with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any intimacy.Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.
Ithink it iswellalsofor themaninthestreettorealizethat there is no power on earth that can protect him from being bombed.Whatever people will tell him, the bomber will always get through.The only defence is in offence, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly thanthe enemy if you want to save yourselves.
Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemyare deceitful.
Know the enemyand know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.
He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there isno place for industry; becausethe fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Man is not the enemy of Man, but through the medium of a false system of government.
In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me,O mine enemy?
Show me an enemy of literature, and I will show him my accounts.
TheThird Fleet's sunken and damaged ships have been salvaged and are retiring at high speed toward the enemy.
O L our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy gloryabove the heavens.Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
There is something that Governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property. So it is through property that we shall strike the enemy Be militant each in your own way I incite this meeting to rebellion.
That sweet enemy, France.
The less seen, the more heard. The eye is the enemy of the ear in real drama.
Thinking is the great enemy of perfection. The habit of profound reflection, I am compelled to say, is the most pernicious of all the habits formed by civilized man.
The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance or abject submission.We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong timeöand with the wrong enemy.
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath; Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there But onlyagony, and that has ending; And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.
Browse dictionary entries near enemy
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