verb (used with object)
- to supply with riches, wealth, abundant or valuable possessions, etc.: Commerce enriches a nation.
- to supply with abundance of anything desirable: to enrich the mind with knowledge.
- to add greater value or significance to: Art enriches life.
- to adorn or decorate: a picture frame enriched with gold.
- to make finer in quality, as by supplying desirable elements or ingredients: to enrich soil.
- to increase the proportion of a valuable mineral or isotope in (a substance or material): The fuel was enriched with uranium 235 for the nuclear reactor.
- Nutrition.
- to restore to (a food) a nutrient that has been lost during an early stage of processing: to enrich flour with thiamine, iron, niacin, and riboflavin.
- to add vitamins and minerals to (food) to enhance its nutritive value.
verb (tr)
- to increase the wealth of
- to endow with fine or desirable qualitiesto enrich one’s experience by travelling
- to make more beautiful; adorn; decoratea robe enriched with jewels
- to improve in quality, colour, flavour, etc
- to increase the food value of by adding nutrientsto enrich dog biscuits with calcium
- to make (soil) more productive, esp by adding fertilizer
- physics to increase the concentration or abundance of one component or isotope in (a solution or mixture); concentrateto enrich a solution by evaporation; enrich a nuclear fuel
late 14c., “to make wealthy,” from Old French enrichir “enrich, enlarge,” from en- “make, put in” (see en- (1)) + riche “rich” (see rich).
Figurative sense is from 1590s. Scientific sense of “to increase the abundance of a particular isotope in some material” is first attested 1945. Related: Enriched; enriching.