English

Alternative forms

• incloser (archaic)

Noun

encloser ‎(plural enclosers)

1. (now chiefly historical) Someone who appropriates common land.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, page 94:

     It was said, for example, that […] the families of notorious enclosers always died out in three generations […] .

   • 1991, Victor Magagna, Communities of Grain:

     Ironically, it was the encloser who had acted in an unbounded manner by violating the institutional boundaries of local community power.

   • 2001, Braddick & Walters (Eds.), Negotiating Power in Early Modern Society, page 133:

     In one episode during the long-running dispute over enclosure at Grewelthorpe Moor in Yorkshire, the women of the community followed the encloser on to the moor and, ‘fallinge downe upon their knees, and some of them weepinge for the loss of their Comon, desired…[him] to be good unto them’.

2. More generally, someone or something that encloses something.
3. (programming) An object, procedure, or other portion of code that defines the scope of a variable.

Usage notes

• For more on the spelling of this word, see enclose.

Old French

Etymology

From the conjugated forms of enclore, such as enclosons, enclosez. Compare modern French fuiter for a similar formation.

Verb

encloser

1. to enclose (form, create a boundary)

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-ss, *-st are modified to s, st. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

References

• encloser on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub (encloser is listed below enclore)