Recently, I used the word "enrolling" to describe my daughters persuasiveness/charming behavior. My friends being the word
Nazis that they are, quickly denounced my use of the word in this fashion and said it was an abuse of the english language.

I admitted that it was a stretch but I argued that it was a reasonable stretch and certainly not abuse, likening it to the "enlisting" the aid of another (a close synonym).

They countered that using its denotative "to enlist" was inappropriate since connotatively it is clear this use of the word is meant for larger causes than my daughters single request...

What do people here think?

I'm not attached to either way, just want to get an outside perspective since my friends and I may have inherent biases...

Thanks,

GCG

If I had a problem with it it would be that you have used a transitive verb intransitively. This is not necessarily a big problem if the object is understood, e.g., when a waiter sets a plate of food in front of you and says, "Enjoy." Your friends might be bothered by their notion that the correct word would be engaging although they may not have expressed it that way.

yes, the interested observer here must be forgiven for thinking to himself, "boy, in the moment he just couldn't come up with the word he really wanted/needed so he streamed something that came reasonably close, so as not to be thought to be suffering from.. um.. anomia." or something.

Recently, I used the word "enrolling" to describe my daughters persuasiveness/charming behavior. My friends being the word Nazis that they are, quickly denounced my use of the word in this fashion and said it was an abuse of the english language.

I sympathize with you on the grammatohooligans, but I don't quite get how you were using the word to mean what you intended it to mean. Could you supply the actual utterance in context? Something similar to enthralling or engaging?