Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Enter

1. To come or go into; to pass into the interior of; to pass within the outer cover or shell of; to penetrate; to pierce; as, to enter a house, a closet, a country, a door, etc.; the river enters the sea. That darksome cave they enter. (Spenser) I, . . . With the multitude of my redeemed, Shall enter heaven, long absent. (Milton)

2. To unite in; to join; to be admitted to; to become a member of; as, to enter an association, a college, an army.

3. To engage in; to become occupied with; as, to enter the legal profession, the book trade, etc.

4. To pass within the limits of; to attain; to begin; to commence upon; as, to enter one's teens, a new era, a new dispensation.

5. To cause to go (into), or to be received (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted; as, to enter a knife into a piece of wood, a wedge into a log; to enter a boy at college, a horse for a race, etc.

6. To inscribe; to enroll; to record; as, to enter a name, or a date, in a book, or a book in a catalogue; to enter the particulars of a sale in an account, a manifest of a ship or of merchandise at the customhouse.

7. To go into or upon, as lands, and take actual possession of them. To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order; as, to enter a writ, appearance, rule, or judgment.

8. To make report of (a vessel or her cargo) at the customhouse; to submit a statement of (imported goods), with the original invoices, to the proper officer of the customs for estimating the duties. See entry.

4.

9. To file or inscribe upon the records of the land office the required particulars concerning (a quantity of public land) in order to entitle a person to a right pf preemption.

10. To deposit for copyright the title or description of (a book, picture, map, etc); as, entered according to act of Congress.

11. To initiate; to introduce favorably.

Origin: oe. Entren, enteren, f. Entrer, fr. L. Intrare, fr. Intro inward, contr. Fr. Intero (sc. Loco), fr. Inter in between, between. See inter-, in, and cf. Interior.