reinforcement (n.)

  1. a military operation (often involving new supplies of men and materiel) to strengthen a military force or aid in the performance of its mission; they called for artillery support

    [ Syn: support , reenforcement ]

  2. information that makes more forcible or convincing; his gestures provided eloquent reinforcement for his complaints

    [ Syn: reenforcement ]

  3. (psychology) a stimulus that strengthens or weakens the behavior that produced it

    [ Syn: reinforcing stimulus , reinforcer ]

  4. a device designed to provide additional strength; the cardboard backing was just a strengthener; he used gummed reinforcements to hold the page in his notebook

    [ Syn: strengthener ]

  5. an act performed to strengthen approved behavior

    [ Syn: reward ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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