Library / English Dictionary

ENTITLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give a title to

Synonyms:

entitle; title

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "entitle" is one way to...):

be known as; call; know as; name (assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "entitle"):

proclaim (declare formally; declare someone to be something; of titles)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Give a title to someone; make someone a member of the nobility

Synonyms:

ennoble; entitle; gentle

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "entitle" is one way to...):

advance; elevate; kick upstairs; promote; raise; upgrade (give a promotion to or assign to a higher position)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "entitle"):

baronetise; baronetize (confer baronetcy upon)

lord (make a lord of someone)

dub; knight (raise (someone) to knighthood)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Give the right to

Example:

The Freedom of Information Act entitles you to request your FBI file

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "entitle" is one way to...):

authorise; authorize; empower (give or delegate power or authority to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They entitle him to write the letter

Derivation:

entitlement (right granted by law or contract (especially a right to benefits))

Credits

 Context examples: 

She supposed she must say more before she were entitled to his clemency; but it was a hard case to be obliged still to lower herself in his opinion.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Because I have less confidence in my deserts than Adele has: she can prefer the claim of old acquaintance, and the right too of custom; for she says you have always been in the habit of giving her playthings; but if I had to make out a case I should be puzzled, since I am a stranger, and have done nothing to entitle me to an acknowledgment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But here, Elinor could neither wonder nor blame; and when she saw, as she assisted Marianne from the carriage, that she had been crying, she saw only an emotion too natural in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity, and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I took the paper from him and read as follows: TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., there is now another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a salary of £ 4 a week for purely nominal services.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know no one more entitled, by unpretending merit, or better prepared by habitual suffering, to receive and enjoy felicity.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I am almost the nearest relation he has in the world, and am entitled to know all his dearest concerns.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There is something in the eloquence of the pulpit, when it is really eloquence, which is entitled to the highest praise and honour.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And having dined, he sat down at his table-desk and completed before midnight an essay which he entitled "The Dignity of Usury."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She vanished like a discontented fairy; or like one of those supernatural beings, whom it was popularly supposed I was entitled to see; and never came back any more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)