Ensure
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ɪnˈʃʊə/, /ɪnˈʃɔË/
- US IPA: /ɪnˈʃʊəɹ/
- Rhymes: -É”Ë(r), -ÊŠÉ™(r)
Origin
From Anglo-Norman enseurer, from Old French seur ("sure").
Full definition of ensure
Verb
- (transitive) To make a pledge to (someone); to promise, guarantee (someone of something); to assure. 14th-18th c.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVI:‘Fayre knyght, for Goddis love, sle me nat, and I shall ensure the never to warre ayenste thy lady, but be allway towarde hir.’
- (intransitive) To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition). from 18th c.I use an alarm clock to ensure that I get up on time.
- 2013-08-10, Lexington, Keeping the mighty honest, British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.