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What do enjoin and junta have in common?
Enjoin has the Latin verb jungere, meaning "to join," at its root, but the kind of joining expressed by enjoin is quite particular: it is about linking someone to an action or activity by either requiring or prohibiting it. When it's the former at hand—that is, when enjoin is used to mean "to direct or impose by authoritative order or with urgent admonition"—the preposition to is typically employed, as in "they enjoined us to secrecy." When prohibition is involved, from is common, as in "signs enjoin attendees from photographing the event." In legal contexts, enjoining involves prohibition by judicial order, through means of an injunction, as in "the judge enjoined them from selling the contract."
Examples of enjoin in a Sentence
July 8, CBS News, 8 July 2025
The majority holds that, absent cumbersome class-action litigation, courts cannot completely enjoin even such plainly unlawful policies unless doing so is necessary to afford the formal parties complete relief.
—Erwin Chemerinsky, Mercury News, 3 July 2025
The decision of a Maryland district judge, Adam Abelson, enjoining the administration’s anti-DEI policies is especially vulnerable, defying an electoral mandate and the Supreme Court’s own turn to a color-blind constitution.
—George Liebmann, Baltimore Sun, 2 July 2025
In collaboration with the firm’s Civil Law Reform Unit and pro bono partners, the team also brings class action lawsuits to enjoin federal immigration policies, such as the denial of relief.
—Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for enjoin
Cite this Entry
“Enjoin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enjoin. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
enjoin
verb
Legal Definition
enjoin
transitive verb
W. J. Brennan, Jr.Anglo-French enjoindre to impose, constrain, from Old French, from Latin injungere to attach, impose, from in- on + jungere to join
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