DictionaryAI

enjoy

verb
in-JOY/ɪnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/

Formsenjoys, enjoying, enjoyed

5 meanings of enjoy

Practice

  1. 1
    take pleasure inverbtransitive
    To receive pleasure or satisfaction from an activity, experience, or thing.

    Thousands of fans enjoyed the fireworks despite the rain.

    Many cats enjoy a warm spot in the afternoon sun.

    UsageAn activity takes -ing: enjoy reading (not incorrect: enjoy to read). Usually give it an object: I enjoyed it.

    Similarlike, love, relish, savor, appreciate

    Oppositedislike, hate, detest, loathe

  2. 2
    have the benefitverbtransitive
    To have the use or benefit of something, such as a right, advantage, or favorable condition.

    Residents enjoy access to the building's rooftop garden.

    The company enjoyed record profits last quarter.

    UsageUsed of good things: enjoy good health, enjoy the right to vote. For bad ones, suffer or have is usual.

    Similarhave, possess, boast

    Oppositelack

    Note

    Here the pleasure fades and the possession remains: a right, an inheritance, good health. The King James Bible of 1611 has the children of Israel enjoy the inheritance of their fathers. The subject need not feel anything at all. Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary (1922) gives a wrist-watch that enjoyed a certain degree of accuracy. Rejoice in makes the same shift from joy to mere possession, though usually with a touch of irony.

  3. 3
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To have fun, as in enjoy oneself; the bare form Enjoy! is said when serving someone food or handing over something they will like.

    Did the kids enjoy themselves at the wedding?

    The waiter set down two steaming bowls of ramen and said, "Enjoy!"

    UsageWith nothing to name, say enjoy yourself: we enjoyed ourselves. Enjoy! alone is mostly said when serving food or giving a gift.

  4. 4
    verbIndiaintransitive
    To be satisfied or to experience pleasure.

    We spent a week in Goa over the holidays and really enjoyed.

    Forget about work this weekend and just enjoy with the family.

    UsageOften with a lot or with people: enjoyed a lot, enjoy with the family. In most other English, enjoyed it or had fun is usual.

    Note

    This is an Indian English use with nothing in particular enjoyed. I enjoyed a lot means the speaker had a good time, and a lot works as an adverb rather than an object.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    have sexverbdatedtransitive
    To have sexual intercourse with; a dated and euphemistic use.

    Rumor held that the baron meant to enjoy her before any betrothal could be arranged.

    The memoir claims the general enjoyed his mistress on the eve of every campaign.

    Similarbed

    Note

    Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) shows this use at work: "so enflame my sense / With ardor to enjoy thee." Nothing in the grammar separates it from the pleasure meaning. It is the same transitive verb with a person as its object, and words like ardor carry the meaning. In older texts, a person as the object of enjoy deserves a second reading.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • John Milton wrote Paradise Lost. gutenberg.org
    • Paradise Lost was first published in 1667. wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk
    • The quoted wording occurs in Paradise Lost. gutenberg.org
    • The passage exemplifies the sexual meaning of enjoy. en.wiktionary.org
    • The pleasure and sexual meanings both use transitive grammar; in this passage the object is a person and the context supplies the sexual interpretation. gutenberg.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of enjoy apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Made of en- and joy, it came into Middle English as enjoyen from Old French enjoier (also anjoier, enjoer), 'to give joy, receive with joy, rejoice'.