Encourage

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Encourage \En*cour"age\ (?; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
     {Encouraged} (?; 48); p. pr. & vb. n. {Encouraging}.] [F.
     encourager; pref. en- (L. in) + courage courage. See
     {Courage}.]
     To give courage to; to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope;
     to raise, or to increase, the confidence of; to animate;


     enhearten; to incite; to help forward; -- the opposite of
     {discourage}.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           David encouraged himself in the Lord.    --1 Sam. xxx.
                                                    6.
  
     Syn: To embolden; inspirit; animate; enhearten; hearten;
          incite; cheer; urge; impel; stimulate; instigate;
          countenance; comfort; promote; advance; forward;
          strengthen.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  encourage
       v 1: contribute to the progress or growth of; "I am promoting the
            use of computers in the classroom" [syn: {promote}, {advance},
             {boost}, {further}]
       2: inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to [ant: {discourage}]
       3: spur on; "His financial success encouraged him to look for a
          wife"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  97 Moby Thesaurus words for "encourage":
     abet, admonish, advance, advantage, advocate, aid, aid and abet,
     animate, ask for, assist, assure, bear up, bolster, boost,
     brace up, brighten, buck up, buoy up, caution, charge, cheer,
     cheer up, chirk up, comfort, condole with, conduce to, console,
     contribute to, countenance, ease, egg on, embolden, endorse,
     enjoin, enliven, exhilarate, exhort, expedite, expostulate,
     facilitate, favor, feed, forward, foster, further, give a lift,
     give comfort, give encouragement, gladden, go for, hasten, hearten,
     help, incite, induce, inspire, inspirit, invigorate, invite,
     issue a caveat, keep in countenance, lend wings to, liven,
     make for, move, nerve, nourish, nurture, pep up, persuade, pick up,
     preach, promote, prompt, push forward, put at ease, put forward,
     quicken, reassure, rejoice, rejoice the heart, relieve,
     remonstrate, set at ease, set forward, shine upon, smile upon,
     solace, speed, stimulate, subscribe, subsidize, support,
     sympathize with, urge, vitalize, warn