enemy:

(plural: ‘enemies‘)

enemies at war

a person who dislikes or hates another person and quarrels or fights with him/her quite often; a foe;

one of two or more people who dislike or hate and quarrel or fight with one another;

a country’s armed/military force which attacks another country, using guns, bombs, etc. in order to kill the armed force of the other,

enemies at an arguement

e.g.

Betty kept wondering why her dearest friend, Jane, had been treating her as an enemy.

Some tennis players who reach the finals and have to play against their own countrymen, most often practice mates and long time friends, fight like sworn enemies!

Political experts are in the opinion that America is, knowingly or unknowingly, making more and more enemies in the name of ‘fight against terrorism’.

My teacher thinks that there’s no point in saying ‘love their enemy’ because if you are a person who can love, you’ll not have any enemies in the first place.

soldiers firing at their enemies

For an informative article on what an enemy combatant is, please click here, for a blog post that speaks of how to love one’s enemy, please click here, for an item of news that shows us how we come across this word in our daily readings, please click here and for an article that discusses the most long standing enemies — India and Pakistan in Asia, please click here.

(imaginary picture of The Enemy — the Satan, the Devil)

Note 1: (with the article ‘the’ and the capital ‘E’ and in religious screptures) the Enemy = the Satan; the Devil, and ‘enemy’ also used to refer to a person’s weakness, bad habit, bad behaviour or some sort of set back, e.g. “Too much drinking is his enemy.”, “Her own jealous thoughts were her enemy number one that ruined her excellent career!”, etc.
Note 2: ‘Enemy’ is also used as an adjective to refer to someone with whom one has some fight, e.g. ‘enemy territory’, ‘enemy country’, ‘enemy soldiers’, etc.

About the Author:BC Kumar

BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language. Disclaimer: This is a free educational website and all content has been compiled by the author. All copyrights to images and videos belong to their respective owners.

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