fulfil
/fʊlˈfɪl
/(US fulfill)
verb (fulfils, fulfilling, fulfilled)
1Achieve or realize (something desired, promised, or predicted): he wouldn’t be able to fulfil his ambition to visit Naples...
- By destroying trees and killing animals man may be able to fulfill his short-term desires, but he was causing a few irreversible problems in the long run.
- April suddenly felt her desire to fulfill her oath to Zoe redouble.
- For if I desire to know the principles of natural things, as soon as I know them this desire is fulfilled and brought to an end.
Synonyms
succeed in, attain, realize, consummate, satisfy, manage, bring off, bring about, carry off, carry out, carry through, bring to fruition, deliver
informal pull something off, clinch
1.1 (fulfil oneself) Gain happiness or satisfaction by achieving one’s potential: arts grants go to young people who say they wish to fulfil themselves...
- Stevens wrote that the poet ‘fulfills himself only as he sees his imagination become the light in the minds of others.’
- Anyone who tells students that there is only one way is putting them ‘into emotional corsets' and preventing them from fulfilling themselves.
- When he left the game at 26, he left behind the idea that he had not fulfilled himself, that he had somehow not been true to his talent.
1.2 archaic Complete (a period of time or piece of work): friends whose ill-timed speed fulfilled my soon-repented deed...
- Nelson has served as poet laureate for four years, with one-year remaining to fulfill her term.
- This difference in initial age strata was necessary because most 19 year old males in Sweden fulfill a year of compulsory military service.
- Then when they are about to fulfill their term appointed, either take them back in good manner or part with them in good manner.
2Carry out (a duty or role) as required, promised, or expected: some officials were dismissed because they could not fulfil their duties...
- The Greek cities considered their king as their benefactor, while he himself felt a duty to fulfil this role.
- When will the minister fulfil his duty and carry out the health studies required by law?
- Every member of the household was expected to carry out and fulfil their role, so I very much doubt for the poorer classes of society then, that they had the time to get bored, let alone to think.
Synonyms
carry out, accomplish, achieve, execute, perform, discharge, implement, effect, effectuate, conduct;
complete, bring to completion, finish, conclude, perfect;
honour, be true to, keep faith with, make good, observe
2.1Satisfy or meet (a requirement, condition, or need): goods must fulfil three basic conditions...
- We have tested our products in heavy field conditions in order to fulfil the high requirements of the Finnish Defense Forces.
- This headquarters is rapidly deployable with the capability to meet any mission and fulfill the requirements of the joint force commander.
- Under church law, he tells me, human sexual practice must fulfill two conditions.
Synonyms
comply with, satisfy, conform to, fill, answer, meet, obey, adhere to, respond to
Derivatives
fulfillable
- The first part of the ethic discussed by Weber is the Lutheran notion of the ‘calling’, in which worldly avocations were considered God created and therefore ‘fulfillable in a spirit of worship’.
- If the demands are comprehensible and fulfillable, fear may drive people to comply.
- And, for the most part, those dreams were both fulfillable and fulfilled.
fulfiller
- But their inscription of the working class as the inheritors and fulfillers of the national destiny had a pervasive effect on Australian historiography.
- The manual assignment of tasks to one fulfiller in a group of fulfillers may cause additional delays.
- If he thought of it at all, he considered himself a fulfiller of God's judgement, a vessel of wrath to be emptied upon the souls of the unrighteous.
Origin
Late Old English fullfyllan 'fill up, make full' (see full1, fill).
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