Encroach

noun, verb

noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Encroachment. rare

    "All that we see, all colours of all shade, By encroach of darkness made?"

Verb
  1. 1
    to seize, appropriate obsolete, transitive
  2. 2
    advance beyond the usual limit wordnet
  3. 3
    To intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory. intransitive

    "[D]rowſie drouping Age, / incroaching on apace, / With penſiue Plough will raze your hue / and Beauties beames deface."

  4. 4
    impinge or infringe upon wordnet
  5. 5
    To advance gradually beyond due limits. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
impingeinvadeabuse a privilegeaccroachadoptadvance

Example

More examples

"A good salesman will not encroach on his customer's time."

Etymology

From Middle English encrochen, from Old French encrochier (“to seize”), from Old French en- + croc (“hook”), of Germanic origin. More at crook.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.