Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To attract with something desirable; entice.
  • intransitive verb To be highly, often subtly attractive.
  • noun The power to attract; enticement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Allurement.
  • To tempt by the offer of some good, real or apparent; invite by something flattering or acceptable; draw or try to draw by some proposed pleasure or advantage: as, rewards allure men to brave danger.
  • To attract; fascinate; charm.
  • Synonyms Allure, Lure, Entice, Decoy, Seduce, attract, invite, coax, engage, prevail on. The first five words imply the exercise of strong but subtle influences over the mind or senses. Allure, lure, to attract by a lure or bait, to draw by appealing to the hope of gain or the love of pleasure, differ but little; the former, however, seems to imply a more definite object than lure, which retains perhaps a little more of the original meaning, though it is less often used. Entice expresses most of skill, subtlety, flattery, or fair speech. Decoy is to lead into a snare by false appearances; this word is the one most commonly used in a physical sense. Seduce, to lead astray, generally from rectitude, but sometimes from interest or truth.
  • noun Same as alure.

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

  • noun rare Allurement.
  • noun Gait; bearing.
  • transitive verb To attempt to draw; to tempt by a lure or bait, that is, by the offer of some good, real or apparent; to invite by something flattering or acceptable; to entice; to attract.

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

  • noun The power to attract, entice; the quality causing attraction.
  • noun gait; bearing
  • verb transitive To entice; to attract.

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

  • verb dispose or incline or entice to
  • noun the power to entice or attract through personal charm

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aluren, from Old French alurer : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + loirre, bait (of Germanic origin).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French aleurer, alurer, from a ("to, towards") (Latin ad) + leurre ("lure"). Compare lure.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Walkway along the top of a curtain wall.

    August 24, 2008

  • why do you think

    the door to the sky

    is closed on your face

    it allures and invites

    your magical touch

    to open and arrive

    - Rumi, ghazal number 253, translated by Nader Khalili.

    September 3, 2008

  • e.g. When I was a teenager, spending the day with my parents held all the allure of a wet Sunday afternoon doing homework.

    Explanation: He hated doing homework as much as being with his parents all day long. Obviously because both things were dull.

    April 30, 2010