implement

Borrowed from Late Latin implēmentum (“a filling up”), from Latin impleō (“I fill up”).

• enPR: ĭmʹplə-mənt, IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpləmənt/

• Audio (US)

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• enPR: ĭmʹplə-mĕnt, IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpləmɛnt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

implement (third-person singular simple present implements, present participle implementing, simple past and past participle implemented)

1. To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.

   It’s a good thought, but it will be a difficult thing to implement.

   • 1960 December, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 715:

     A considerable amount of beet comes from the Clonakilty and Courtmacsherry growing areas to Mallow and if the closure proposals mentioned are implemented this traffic will in future years be thrown on roads ill-suited to such heavy haulage.

   • 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian‎:

     Guardiola, who last won the Champions League in 2011, started with no defensive midfielder and no recognised striker and watched his midfielder-heavy lineup struggle to implement a complicated gameplan.

2. (programming) To realize a technical specification or algorithm.
3. (object-oriented programming, of a concrete class) To include implementations of methods of an interface, abstract class, or protocol.

• (include implementations of methods of an interface): inherit, conform

• implementable
• implementation
• implementer

implement (plural implements)

1. A tool or instrument for working with.

   They carried an assortment of gardening implements in the truck.

   • 1900, Sigmund Freud, translated by James Strachey, The Interpretation of Dreams: Avon Books, page 234:

     A man dreamt as follows: He saw two boys struggling—barrel-maker’s boys, to judge by the implements lying around.

• See also Thesaurus:instrument

• “implement”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “implement”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.