empower
/ɪmˈpaʊə
/ /ɛmˈpaʊə/verb [with object and infinitive]
1Give (someone) the authority or power to do something: members are empowered to audit the accounts of limited companies...
- Smith was also empowered to make arrangements for a mass meeting, but action was delayed until the following month.
- The U.N. has never established a court empowered to do so.
- New cabinet members are not legally empowered because they have not been officially appointed yet.
Synonyms
authorize, license, entitle, permit, allow, sanction, warrant, commission, delegate, certify, accredit, qualify;
give someone the authority, give someone permission;
enable, equip, give the power to, give the means to
informal give the go-ahead to, give the green light to, OK, give the OK to, give the thumbs up to
1.1 [with object] Make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights: movements to empower the poor...
- Afrikaner women were newly empowered by more extensive literacy and the franchise.
- Newly empowered consumers can appropriate and manipulate the brand in whatever way they want.
- An economically empowered community may be able thereafter to access other health services.
Synonyms
emancipate, unyoke, unfetter, unshackle, unchain, set free, give freedom to
historical enfranchise
Rhymes
- black coal
- black coat
- black-coated
- blackcock
- black cockatoo
- black cod
- black code
- black coffee
- black consciousness
- black cotton soil
- Black Country
- black county
- black crappie
- black crop
- black cumin
- black curlew
- blackcurrant
- blackcurrant gall mite
- blackcurrant mite
- blackcurranty
- blackdamp
- Black Death
- black diamond
- black disease
- black doctor