verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To break or violate a treaty, a law, a right, etc. transitive

   "Near-synonym: flout"

2. 2
   advance beyond the usual limit wordnet
3. 3
   To break in or encroach on something. intransitive

   "Near-synonym: impinge"

4. 4
   go against, as of rules and laws wordnet
5. 5
   To furnish or embellish with a fringe. dated, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

encroachimpingeaccroachadoptadvanceadvance upon

Example

More examples

"It's fine to set up a web page, just be sure you don't infringe anybody's copyright."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin infringere (“to break off, break, bruise, weaken, destroy”), from in (“in”) + frangere (“to break”).

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