ensure

Etymology

From Middle English ensuren, from Anglo-Norman enseurer, from Old French seur (“sure”).

verb

1. (transitive) To make a pledge to (someone); to promise, guarantee (someone of something); to assure.
2. (intransitive) To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition).
   I use an alarm clock to ensure that I get up on time.
   British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far. 2013-08-10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848