reinforce

reinforce (something) with (something)

1. To make something stronger, sturdier, or more resilient by additional materials or supports. We need to reinforce this wall with steel beams, or else it could come crashing down under the weight of the house. They started reinforcing the barricade with anything heavy they could find in the house.
2. To give a military force greater strength by adding more troops, personnel, equipment, etc. We'll hopefully be able to reinforce our active squadrons with more soldiers by the end of the month. The new spending bill aims to reinforce troops on the ground with more advanced weaponry and communications equipment.
3. To make some feeling or thought process stronger, more effective, or more forceful with the addition of supporting evidence or action. These kinds of people simply reinforce their prejudices with cherry-picked information that omits or ignores anything that goes against their own narrative. It's important to reinforce your child's sense of safety and wellbeing with displays of affection and words of encouragement.
See also: reinforce
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

reinforce someone or something with something

to strengthen someone or something with something. The general reinforced his troops with volunteers fresh from basic training. I had to reinforce the garage roof with new boards.
See also: reinforce
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • reinforce (something) with (something)
  • reinforce with
  • reel under
  • reel under (something)
  • of steel
  • have (someone or something) on (one's) side
  • have something on your side
  • build a case
  • brace up
  • gather a case
References in periodicals archive
Providing the opportunity for Externs to reinforce their educational training and confidence in the geriatric field.
We're training nurses for the 21st century
Using aramid pulp to reinforce the roll cover compound can help reduce wear due to slipping and abrasion.
Compounding with para-aramid fiber engineered elastomers
2) a new glass wall replaces the masonry wall of the existing facade to allow natural light to flood into the lobby during the day, and to project a glowing light to the exterior at night; 3) a lattice of wood slats extending from the north courtyard wall to the rear wall of the Lobby reinforces the transition from the Courtyard to the interior; and 4) the new cast stone interior and exterior paving materially anchors the inside to the outside."
Architects' museum design wins award for excellence
Solid glass microspheres, in a wide range of sizes, reinforce and extend all thermosets and most thermoplastics used in injection molding, extrusion, compression molding and open-mold casting.
Fillers: product lines reviewed
"Specifically, they affect regulation of the brain chemical dopamine, which produces psychoactive sensations and reinforces drug-use behavior." Though studies of dopamine's role in addiction initially focused on cocaine, Henningfield says, by the late 1980s "this was starting to get nailed down for nicotine as well."
The great nicotine debate: are cigarette recipes 'cooked' to keep smokers hooked?
Patricia Lee Rubin's reading of the appearance of Matteo Palmieri and his wife as the donors in Botticini's painting Assumption of the Virgin, a painting that Palmieri himself commissioned as his memorial, reinforces the importance art as a vehicle for the construction and reconstruction of memory.
Art, Family, and Memory in Renaissance Florence. (Reviews)
In a simple case, the stimulation from a damaged tooth that brings someone to the dentist is described by the sufferer as "a toothache." This may or may not be true, but the verbal response is anchored in the way a society reinforces descriptions of pain and other body sensations.
Skinner boxing; take your seats, please. The guru of behaviorism is set to challenge the palookas who discarded his scientific approach
The result, according to Myers, is a chemically coupled morphology in which the polysulfone reinforces the nylon matrix, improving its heat-distortion properties and impact resistance while reducing its moisture absorption.
New engineering materials revealed at ANTEC