enrich

verb

USin-RICH/ɪnˈɹɪt͡ʃ/

7 meanings of enrich

1
verbtransitive
To improve or enhance the quality, value, or experience of something.
Good mentorship can enrich a young person's career immeasurably.
The new exhibits enrich visitors' experience of the museum.
Similarenhance, improve, deepen, benefit
Oppositeimpoverish, diminish
2
verbtransitive
To make someone or something rich or richer in money or resources.
The discovery of oil enriched a handful of families overnight.
Smart investments can enrich patient savers over time.
Similarendow
Oppositeimpoverish
Note
The literal sense is built exactly as it looks, en- plus rich. It came into English through Middle English enrichen, from Anglo-Norman enrichir and Old French enrichier. Mechanics have their own use: a choke enriches the fuel mixture, and the opposite of a rich mixture is a lean one. Elsewhere the usual antonym is impoverish, with derich and disenrich as further opposites.
3
verbtransitive
To add nutrients to food products in order to fortify them.
Producers enrich white flour with B vitamins lost during milling.
The factory enriches its milk with vitamin D before bottling.
Similarfortify, supplement
4
verbtransitive
To add nutrients or fertilizer to soil in order to fertilize it.
Cover crops enrich depleted fields with nitrogen naturally.
The gardener enriches the clay soil with leaf mold every fall.
Similarfertilize, feed, improve
Oppositeimpoverish
5
verbtransitive
To raise the concentration of a particular isotope in a mixture, especially one used as nuclear fuel.
Centrifuges enrich uranium by separating heavier isotopes from lighter ones.
Engineers enriched the sample until it reached reactor-grade purity.
Oppositedeplete
Note
Nuclear physics uses the word with the element as its object. You enrich uranium, which means raising the share of uranium-235 in its natural isotopic mix, for reactor fuel or for weapons. News coverage of nuclear programs uses it in exactly this form. Its opposites are technical too: depleted uranium has had the isotope drawn down, and to downblend is to dilute enriched material again.
6
verbtransitive
To adorn or decorate something more richly.
Goldsmiths enrich the crown with rows of polished gems.
The artist enriched the manuscript with elaborate illuminated borders.
Similaradorn, decorate, embellish, ornament
7
verbtransitive
To increase the proportion of a particular constituent in a mixture.
Repeated washing steps enrich the solution in the desired compound.
Distillation enriched the vapor in the more volatile component.
Oppositedeplete
Note
In the laboratory nothing new needs to be added. A mixture counts as enriched when one component's share of the whole rises, often because the other components are taken away. The usual construction is enrich X in Y, as in a fraction enriched in the target compound, though chemists also say the component itself is enriched. The nuclear-fuel sense applies the same idea to a single isotope.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English enrichen, from Anglo-Norman enrichir and Old French enrichier. By surface analysis, it breaks down into en- plus rich.