Word definition: enough

Etimology


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”).).

determiner


enough

Sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate.

Examples


I've already had enough coffee today.

There is food enough for us all.

How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare!

But it wasn’t ransom enough.His captors accepted it all,But didn’t let go of the king.

adverb


enough

Sufficiently.

Fully; quite; used after adjectives to express slight augmentation of the positive degree, and sometimes equivalent to very.

Used after certain adverbs to emphasise that a quality is notable, unexpected, etc.

Examples


I cannot run fast enough to catch up to them.

You've worked enough; rest for a bit.

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.

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.

‘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?’

He is ready enough to accept the offer.

I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio.

“[…] 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.”

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.

pronoun


enough

A sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc.

Examples


I have enough 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.

interjection


enough!

Stop! Don't do that any more!

Examples


I'm sick of you complaining! Enough!

noun


enough (plural enoughs)

(rare, chiefly in the plural) An instance of being sufficient, or of doing something sufficiently.

Examples


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.

Data provided by Wiktionary