v. Forms: α. 3 enjunȝe, (anjoyni, ? angeonni), 3–4 enyoyn, 4–8 enjoyn(e, 4 (enjon), enjoign, (6 enjun), 7 enjoine, 7– enjoin. β. 6–7 inioyn(e, injoyn(e, (7 inoyne), 6–9 injoin. (See also ADJOIN ¶.) [a. Fr. enjoign- stem of enjoindre, corresp. to Pr. enjunher, It. ingiugnere:—L. injungĕre to join on, to impose (a penalty or duty), f. in- + jungĕre to join.]
† 1. trans. To join together. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xix. 6. Therfore a man departe nat that thing that God enioynyde, or knytte to gidre.
1393. Langland, P. Pl., C. XI. 130. With wynd and water wittyliche en-ioyned.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men, V. ii. (1506), 366. To enioyne hete and colde in one selfe torment.
1559. Homilies, I. Adultery, II. Through whoredome to be enjoyned [1547 joined] and made all one with a whore.
c. 1600. Norden, Cornwall, in Johns, Week Lizard (1848), 224. The forces of manie strong men enjoyned can doe no more in moving it.
1684. Charnock, Wks. (1864), I. 115. A reflection upon what God hath done should be enjoined with our desires of what we would have God to do for us.
† b. To take part in; also, to attach oneself to, join (a company). Obs.
1546. Gardiner, Decl. Articles Joye, 59. His ministers … enioyning his glory and his honour.
1571. Digges, Pantom., Pref. A iv. Enioyning the company of Euclide, Archimedes, [etc.].
† c. intr. for refl. To join, make common cause with. Obs. rare–1.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist., II. VII. 382. Theron enjoined [1739 (ed. 2), joined] with his father-in-law.
2. In early use: To impose (a penalty, task, duty or obligation); said esp. of a spiritual director (to enjoin penance, etc.). Hence in mod. use: To prescribe authoritatively and with emphasis (an action, a course of conduct, state of feeling, etc.). Const. on, upon (a person); formerly to, or dative (or acc.: see 2 b); also simply.
‘It is more authoritative than direct, and less imperious than command’ (J.)
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 346. Al þet vuel þet tu euer þolest uor þe luue of Iesu Crist, wiðinnen þine ancre wowes,—al ich on iunne [better readings enjunȝe, angeonni] þe.
1340. Ayenb., 172. Þet he habbe power … him penonce to anioynj be þe zenne.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 43. Þo mynystris … schullen wiþ mercy enyonye hen penaunce.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 412. Penaunce þat þe prest enioigneth.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 32. It semiþ þat God enioniþ to doctors & dekunis þe minstri of presthed & of dekunhed.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxv. 223. That was eniunyd hym on payne of deth.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 503. And enioyned him no other punishment.
1616. Hieron, Wks., II. 31. I perswade not a neglect of reading; nay, I intend and inioyne these.
1669–70. Marvell, Corr., cxxxvi. Wks. 1872–5, II. 302. The Lords … have enjoyned their clerks secrecy.
1667. Poole, Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 30. [The Romish Church] enjoyns these Practices to all her Members.
a. 1778. Chatham, Lett. Nephew, iv. 22. Pythagoras enjoined his scholars an absolute silence for a long noviciate.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 5. 12. A law enjoining all that ought to be done by man.
1863. Bright, Sp. America, 26 March. In spite of all that morality may enjoin upon them.
b. The construction with dat. of person and acc. of thing is formally identical in mod. Eng. with the construction with double acc. Hence sometimes in passive with acc. of the thing.
1644. Milton, Areop., 54. But to be enjoyn’d the reading of that at all times.
† c. To enjoin (a person) to a penalty, observance, etc. Obs.
c. 1380. Antecrist, in Todd, 3 Treat. Wyclif, 149. Þei enioynen hem to brede & watur & to go barefote.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health (1636), 291. Not much greater punishment than the Nunne was enjoyned to.
1678. C. Hatton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 163. He wispers it about as a great secret, injoyning all persons to privacy.
1693. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 372. He wold Enjoine the Senecas … to peace and friendship with them.
† d. To impose rules on (oneself). Obs. rare–1.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 292. Monkes and Philosophers, and such as do continually enjoyne themselves.
e. with personal obj. (orig. indirect, in dative or preceded by on, to; afterwards direct) and inf. or subord. clause.
1297. R. Glouc., 234. He hem enyoynede bocsomnesse do To þe herchebyssop of Kanterbury.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxlvii. 126. Atte last the pope … enioyned to the bisshops of englond that they sholde done general enterdyting thurgh oute al Englond.
1526. Tindale, Acts xv. 5. To inioyne them to keepe the lawe of Moses.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., II. iii. 173. We enioyne thee … that thou carry This female Bastard hence.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), I. 8. There are several canons enjoyning bishops to visit.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 268, ¶ 7. They injoined me to bring them something from London.
1825. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 18. They were enjoined … to do nothing which should impede that object.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. I. iii. 42. The pope … advised and even enjoined him to return to his duties.
f. without personal obj. and with inf. subord. clause. Hence impersonally in passive.
1547. Homilies, I. Pref. 5. A Sermon according as it is injoined in the book of her Highness Injunctions.
a. 1694. Tillotson, Serm., iii. in Wks. (1696), 46 (T.), Enjoining that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words, promises and contracts.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Ab., ii. 73. In his will he enjoined that his image on his tomb [etc.].
Mod. Christianity enjoins that we love our enemies.
3. To prohibit, forbid (a thing); to prohibit (a person) from (a person or thing). Now only in Law: To prohibit or restrain by an INJUNCTION.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (1869), 30. Sore agreeued … for that he had enioyned them from their wiues.
1814. Ld. Eldon, in Vesey & Beame, Reports, II. 412. The Court … would … injoin that action for ever.
1884. Sir C. Bowen, in Law Rep. Chanc. Div. XXVI. 709. We are now asked to … enjoin him for ever from infringing a right which does not exist.
Hence † Enjoinance, an injunction, command. Enjoined ppl. a. Enjoiner, one who enjoins. Enjoining vbl. sb. Enjoinment, the action of enjoining, injunction.
1782. Elphinston, Martial, III. ii. 132. That is thy father’s own enjoinance.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., II. viii. (1611), 78. That which the bond of necessary and enioyned duty tyed him vnto.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. v. 97. Of inioyn’d penitents There’s foure or fiue, to great S. Iaques bound, Alreadie at my house.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxxiii. 618. The founder or inioyner thereof by lawe.
1662. Fuller, Worthies Sussex, III. 101. He was a great punisher of Pluralists, and injoyner of Residence.
a. 1570. Becon, New Catech., Wks. (1844), 217. The enjoining of this outward baptism doth not save.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. (1650), 68 (J.). Exact and criticall triall should be made by publike enjoinment.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxxix. Letters of more strict enjoinment and more hard compulsion.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., II. IV. 777. Her putative parents had impressed On their departure, their enjoinment.
