insure

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To provide or arrange insurance for.
• intransitive verb To acquire or have insurance for.
• intransitive verb To make sure, certain, or secure.
• intransitive verb To buy or sell insurance.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To make sure, certain, or secure; give assurance of; assure: as, to insure safety to any one.
• Specifically To guarantee or secure indemnity for future loss or damage (as to a building from fire, or to a person from accident or death) on certain stipulated conditions; make a subject of insurance; assure: as, to insure a ship or its cargo, or both, against the dangers of the sea; to insure a house against fire.
• To pledge; betroth.
• Synonyms Insure, Assure. Assure may express the making certain in mind: as, I was assured of safety by his friendly manner; insure has not this sense. Insure is a possible word to express the making certain in fact, and is more common than ensure: as, his lack of money insured his early return; assure has not this sense. Insure and assure are both used of the act of pledging a payment of money upon loss or death, but assure is rarely used in that sense in the United States.
• To undertake to secure or assure against loss or damage on receipt of a certain payment or premium; make insurance: as, the company insures at a low premium.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To underwrite; to make insurance.
• transitive verb To make sure or secure.
• transitive verb Specifically, to secure against a loss by a contingent event, on certain stipulated conditions, or at a given rate or premium; to give or to take an insurance on or for

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive To provide for compensation if some specified risk occurs. Often agreed by policy (contract) to offer financial compensation in case of an accident, theft or other undesirable event.
• verb intransitive To deal in such contracts; subscribe to a policy of insurance
• verb Alternative spelling of ensure: (transitive) To make sure or certain of; guarantee.
• verb perhaps nonstandard Alternative form of assure: (transitive) To give confidence in the trustworthiness of.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb protect by insurance
• verb make certain of
• verb take out insurance for
• verb be careful or certain to do something; make certain of something