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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To habituate to something undesirable, especially by prolonged subjection; accustom: "Though the food became no more palatable, he soon became sufficiently inured to it” ( John Barth).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To establish by use; put into exercise or act; insure.
  2. To use; adapt; qualify; practise; exercise; ply.
  3. To toughen or harden by exercise; deaden the sensibility of; accustom; habituate: followed by to.
  4. To pass in use; take or have effect; be applied; become available or serviceable: as, the land will inure to the heirs, or to the benefit of the heirs.
  5. In law, to devolve as a right. It is commonly used of a devolution by law not intended by the parties: as, if the holder of a lease with covenant for renewal assigns it, and afterward gets a renewal to himself, the renewal inures to the benefit of the assignee.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To cause (someone) to become accustomed (to something); to habituate. [from 16th c.]
  2. v. To take effect, to be operative. [from 16th c.]

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To apply in use; to train; to discipline; to use or accustom till use gives little or no pain or inconvenience; to harden; to habituate; to practice habitually.
  2. v. To pass into use; to take or have effect; to be applied; to serve to the use or benefit of.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate.

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, back-formation from enured, customary, from in ure : in, in; see in1 + ure, use (from Old French euvre, uevre, work, from Latin opera, activity associated with work; see op- in Indo-European roots).

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  • yarb I had believed myself fairly inured to foolishness after
    6 months for Reuter's in parched mad bloody Lebanon, but...

    - Peter Reading, Ukulele Music, 1985 Jun 19, 2009

  • dangertoy I have used this word routinely for years to describe my tolerance for my ex. I always have to define this word to the listener, but there is no better word in my opinion to describe my dealings with this person. May 11, 2009

  • jaymediane Inure (also enure) v. 1 trans. (usu. be inured to) accustom (someone) to something, esp. something unpleasant : these children have been inured to violence. 2 intrans. ( enure for/to) Law come into operation; take effect : a release given to one of two joint contractors inures to the benefit of both.

    ORIGIN late Middle English inure, enure, from an Anglo-Norman French phrase meaning ‘in use or practice,’ from en ‘in’ + Old French euvre ‘work’ (from Latin opera).

    Inured by the confirmation of his own inconsequence, he became resilient and truly indifferent. Nothing mattered much. Nothing much mattered. And the less it mattered, the less it mattered. It was never important enough. Because Worse Things had happened. In the country that she came from, poised forever between the terror of war and the horror of peace, Worse Things kept happening. (Roy 20)


    Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
    Feb 26, 2008

‘inure’ has been looked up 2990 times, loved by 20 people, added to 78 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 5.