Meanings
present singular third person encroaches · participle present encroaching · participle past encroached · past encroached · alternative incroach
- obsoletetransitiveto seize, appropriate
- intransitiveTo intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory.
I won’t encroach on your time any longer.
5 more examples
[D]rowſie drouping Age, / incroaching on apace, / With penſiue Plough will raze your hue / and Beauties beames deface.
1567, George Turbervil[l]e, “The Louer Exhorteth His Ladie to Take Time, while Time is”, in Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs and Sonets, with a Discourse of the Friendly Affections of Tymetes to Pyndara His Ladie. […], London: […] Henry Denham, →OCLC, folios 32, verso – 33, rectoNow stands the Brere like a lord alone, / Puffed up with pryde and vaine pleasaunce. / But all this glee had no continuaunce: / For eftsones winter gan to approche; / The blustering Boreas did encroche, / And beate upon the solitarie Brere; / For nowe no succoure was seene him nere.
1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: Conteyning Tvvelue Æglogues Proportionable to the Twelue Monethes. Entitled to the Noble and Vertuous Gentleman most Worthy of all Titles both of Learning and Cheualrie M. Philip Sidney, London: Printed by Hugh Singleton, dwelling in Creede Lane neere vnto Ludgate at the signe of the gylden Tunne, and are there to be solde, OCLC 606515406; republished in Francis J[ames] Child, editor, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser: The Text Carefully Revised, and Illustrated with Notes, Original and Selected by Francis J. Child: Five Volumes in Three, volume III, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, published 1855, OCLC 793557671, page 406, lines 222–228Because change itself would absolutely stay-stable, and again, conversely, stability itself would change, if each of them encroached on the other.
2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 252dHe never allows work to encroach upon his family life.
Gradually the negative feelings encroached into her work.
plural encroaches
- rareEncroachment.
All that we see, all colours of all shade, By encroach of darkness made?
1805, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What is Life?1 more example
Shorey was among the most vociferous opponents of the encroach of scientism and utilitarianism in education and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
2002, Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism, JHU Press, published 2002, page 116
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Frenchen-
- Old Frenchencrochier“to seize”
- Middle Englishencrochen
- Englishencroach
From Middle English encrochen, from Old French encrochier (“to seize”), from Old French en- + croc (“hook”), of Germanic origin. More at crook.
More words from Middle English, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic اِخْتَلَسَ, أَزْعَجَ
- اِخْتَلَسَ (iḵtalasa)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- أَزْعَجَ (ʔazʕaja)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- تَدَخَّلَ فِي (tadaḵḵala fī)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- قَيَّدَ (qayyada)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Bulgarian навлизам незаконно, натрапвам се
- навлизам незаконно (navlizam nezakonno)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- натрапвам се (natrapvam se)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- натрапя се (natrapja se)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- злоупотребявам (zloupotrebjavam)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- злоупотребя (zloupotrebja)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Catalan usurpar, ocupar
- usurparto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- ocuparto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- envairto advance gradually beyond due limits
Chinese Mandarin 侵犯, 侵害
- 侵犯 (qīnfàn)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- 侵害 (qīnhài)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- 侵入 (qīnrù)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Czech zasahovat, omezovat
- zasahovatto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- omezovatto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- narušovatto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Danish krænke
- krænketo intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Dutch binnendringen, uitdijen
- binnendringento intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- uitdijento advance gradually beyond due limits
Finnish loukata, tunkeutua
- loukatato intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- tunkeutuato intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- tunkeutuato advance gradually beyond due limits
German widerrechtlich eindringen, widerrechtlich vordringen
- widerrechtlich eindringento intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- widerrechtlich vordringento advance gradually beyond due limits
- sich widerrechtlich ausdehnento advance gradually beyond due limits
- übergriffig werdento advance gradually beyond due limits
- Übergriffe begehento advance gradually beyond due limits
Greek επεμβαίνω, επεκτείνομαι
- επεμβαίνω (epemvaíno)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- επεκτείνομαι (epekteínomai)to advance gradually beyond due limits
Hungarian betolakodik, betolakodik
- betolakodikto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- betolakodikto advance gradually beyond due limits
Italian invadere
- invadereto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Japanese 侵入する
- 侵入する (shinnyū-suru)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Korean 침입하다
- 침입하다 (chimip-hada)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Māori aurara, auta
- aurarato intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- autato intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Polish naruszać
- naruszaćto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Portuguese invadir
- invadirto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Russian вторга́ться, вто́ргнуться
- вторга́ться (vtorgátʹsja)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- вто́ргнуться (vtórgnutʹsja)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- посяга́ть (posjagátʹ)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- посягну́ть (posjagnútʹ)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- покушаться (pokušatʹsja)to intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- вторга́ться (vtorgátʹsja)to advance gradually beyond due limits
- вто́ргнуться (vtórgnutʹsja)to advance gradually beyond due limits
Spanish inmiscuirse, traspasar
- inmiscuirseto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- traspasarto intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
- mermarto advance gradually beyond due limits
- menoscabarto advance gradually beyond due limits
Swedish inkräkta
- inkräktato intrude unrightfully on someone else’s rights or territory
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with encroach
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
encroach. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encroach
“encroach.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encroach. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “encroach,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/encroach.
Source: encroach on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.