Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To confine within or as if within walls; imprison.
- v. To build into a wall: immure a shrine.
- v. To entomb in a wall.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To surround with walls; wall; fortify; protect.
- To inclose within walls; hence, to shut up or confine, in general.
- n. An inclosure; a wall.
- To build into a wall; imbed in masonry.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To cloister, confine, imprison: to lock up behind walls.
- v. transitive To put or bury within a wall.
- v. transitive To trap or capture (an impurity); chiefly in the participial adjective immured and gerund or gerundial noun immuring.
- n. obsolete A wall; an enclosure.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To wall around; to surround with walls.
- v. To inclose whithin walls, or as within walls; hence, to shut up; to imprison; to incarcerate.
- n. obsolete A wall; an inclosure.
WordNet 3.0
- v. lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
Etymologies
- From Latin im, combining variant of in ("in"), + mūrus ("wall"). (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin immūrāre : Latin in-, in; see in-2 + Latin mūrus, wall. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Higden having had the imprudence, in his grief, to make known his recent misfortune, it had reached the ears of his landlord, who already was watchful and suspicious, from a year and half arrears of his rent; and steps were immediately preparing to seize whatever was upon the premises the next morning; which, by bringing upon him all his other creditors, would infallibly immure him in the lingering hopelessness of a prison.”
“Sensible it was impossible ever to remove the fatal truth, or the impression to her father of her lost virtue, she formed the frantic resolution of setting off for the wild solitudes of Cumberland, and there immure herself alive for the remainder of her existence.”
“Or that we immure ourselves in the aisles of Metropolitan Market, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Larry's Market.”
“Though the bank isn't state-owned it isn't immure from state policy.”
“She has fantasies of murdering both of them, but everything seems to indicate that she decides rather to immure herself in a perverse pact with the house servant.”
“Do you think that that woman, who sits at Barchester in high places, disgracing herself and that puny ecclesiastical lord who is her husband — do you think that she would not immure me if she could?”
“Lady Selina, evidently discrediting so unlikely a story, and thinking it all but impossible that her brother should immure himself at Grey Abbey during the London season.”
“He did not immure himself in the solid structure of his social relations, but had made of them, so as to be able to set it up afresh upon new foundations wherever a woman might take his fancy, one of those collapsible tents which explorers carry about with them.”
“At its worst, this habit of optimism allows us to bury our heads in the sand, deny the ubiquity of pain in ourselves and others, and to immure ourselves in a state of deliberate heartlessness to ensure our emotional survival.”
“I shall immure myself in my quarters, and none of you, "he said, shaking his heavy fore - finger at us," shall come near me until" "he paused dramatically" 'that period is over and I know myself to be clean. ”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘immure’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 234 more...
-
Used
halcyon, ineluctable, inspissated, incarnadine, askance, demur, saltation, requisite, effusive, specious, liminality, indomitable and 114 more...
-
phrontistery - i
from phrontistery.info
izzat, izzard, ixiodic, izard, ivresse, ixora, ivorist, ivoride, ivorine, iulus, iulan, ithomiid and 510 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
-
Favorite Words
Fun words that are interesting and arresting.
Ort, unctuous, panoply, defenestrate, palpable, ubiquitous, flagellate, serendipitous, epiphanic, constructivist, amuse bouche, sobriquet and 30 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
-
Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
-
new words!
errata, corrigenda, lacuna, inculcate, chiaroscuro, temerity, folderol, juggernaut, diadem, alacrity, exegesis, portmanteau and 97 more...
-
wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
-
More Words I Should Have Learned for ...
emetic, emend, emollient, emolument, encomiastic, aeon, epaulet, epistemology, eulogy, euphony, evince, exchequer and 97 more...
-
words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
-
azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
-
newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for immure.

bilby "Not surprisingly, Sally shuddered at the thought of being immured in the black cave, to die slowly and hopelessly, far below the sunny hillside."
- Peter Pierce, 'The Fiction of Gabrielle Lord', Australian Literary Studies, October 1999. May 21, 2009