encourage
/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ verb A2- To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. · I encouraged him during his race.· Delia's coach encouraged her to focus on the positives.
- To spur on, strongly recommend. · We encourage the use of bicycles in the town centre.· We encourage you to cycle instead of taking the car.
- To foster, give help or patronage. · The royal family has always encouraged the arts in word and deed.
He/she/it encourages · Past encouraged · Past participle encouraged · -ing form encouraging
Verb forms
- Base form
- encourage
- He/she/it
- encourages
- Past
- encouraged
- Past participle
- encouraged
- -ing form
- encouraging
From the library
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation.
“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice did not feel encouraged to ask any more questions about it, so she turned to the Mock Turtle, and said “What else had you to learn?”
This did not seem to encourage the witness at all: he kept shifting from one foot to the other, looking uneasily at the Queen, and in his confusion he bit a large piece out of his teacup instead of the bread-and-butter.
Learn encourage in real texts
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