Word.ws English Dictionary

encroach

/ɪŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/

encroach verb: to seize, appropriate.

Verb

encroach (third-person singular simple present encroaches, present participle encroaching, simple past and past participle encroached)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) to seize, appropriate
  2. (intransitive) To intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory.
    • [D]rowſie drouping Age, / incroaching on apace, / With penſiue Plough will raze your hue / and Beauties beames deface.1567, George Turbervil[l]e, “The Louer Exhorteth His Ladie to Take Time, while Time is”, in Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs and Sonets, with a Discourse of the Friendly Affections of Tymetes to Pyndara...
    • Now stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Tvvelue Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelue Monethes. Entitled to the Noble and Vertuous Gentleman most Worthy of...
    Synonyms:
    infringe, poach
  3. (intransitive) To advance gradually beyond due limits.

Noun

encroach (plural encroaches)

  1. (rare) Encroachment.
    • All that we see, all colours of all shade,
      By encroach of darkness made?1805, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What is Life?
    • Shorey was among the most vociferous opponents of the encroach of scientism and utilitarianism in education and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.2002, Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism, JHU Press, published 2002, page 116

encroach meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

encroach in Tamil

எல்லைமீறு, தடை மீறு, வன்கவர், வரம்பு கட

encroach in Urdu

قبضہ کرنا

encroach in Bengali

অনধিকার প্রবেশ করা, দখল করা, অন্যের সীমানা, অধিকারে হস্তক্ষেপ করা

encroach in Malayalam

to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
കയ്യേറുക kayyēṟuka
More languagesFewer languages
encroach in Kannada
ಆಕ್ರಮಣಮಾಡು, ಅತಿಕ್ರಮಿಸು, ಒತ್ತುವರಿ ಮಾಡು, ಎಲ್ಲೆಮೀರಿ ಹೋಗು
encroach in Arabic
اِخْتَلَسَ iḵtalasa, أَزْعَجَ ʔazʕaja, تَدَخَّلَ فِي tadaḵḵala fī, قَيَّدَ qayyada

Examples of encroach in a sentence

  • I won’t encroach on your time any longer.
  • He never allows work to encroach upon his family life.
  • Gradually the negative feelings encroached into her work.
  • Because change itself would absolutely stay-stable, and again, conversely, stability itself would change, if each of them encroached on the other.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 252d:

All 19 example sentences with encroach

Synonyms of encroach

Forms of encroach

Verb
third-person singular presentencroaches
present participleencroaching
past participleencroached
pastencroached
alternative formincroach
Noun
pluralencroaches

Past tense of encroach: encroached

Origin of encroach

From Middle English encrochen, from Old French encrochier (“to seize”), from Old French en- + croc (“hook”), of Germanic origin. More at crook.

Words formed from encroach

Words that rhyme with encroach

Questions about encroach

What does encroach mean?
Encroach means to seize, appropriate.
What is encroach in Tamil?
Encroach in Tamil is எல்லைமீறு, தடை மீறு, வன்கவர். See Encroach meaning in Tamil.
How do you use encroach in a sentence?
I won’t encroach on your time any longer.
What part of speech is encroach?
Encroach can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce encroach?
Encroach is pronounced /ɪŋˈkɹəʊtʃ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of encroach?
The past tense of encroach is encroached.

Words near encroach in the dictionary

  1. encrinitical
  2. encrinurid
  3. encrinurids
  4. encrinus
  5. encrisped
  6. encroach
  7. encroachable
  8. encroached
  9. encroacher
  10. encroachers
  11. encroaches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: encroach (page history and authors); encroach (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encroach (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Encroach (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); encroach (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-encroach.wav.

Cite this entry: “encroach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/encroach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.