Word of the Day

: December 11, 2018

immure

verb ih-MYOOR

What It Means

1 a : to enclose within or as if within walls

b : imprison

2 : to build into a wall; especially : to entomb in a wall

immure in Context

"Agnes … is a suburban lifer, a mousy, resigned little woman whose life is immured by her home, her family, and her church." — Jonathan Richards, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 7 Sept. 2018

"In the croissants and their variations, the layers are as distinct as ribs, from slabs of cold butter immured in fold after fold of dough; the interior resembles a honeycomb of air, due to steam released during baking as the butter slowly melts." — Ligaya Mishan, The New York Times, 13 Mar. 2018

Did You Know?

Like mural, immure comes from murus, a Latin noun that means "wall." Immurare, a Medieval Latin verb, was formed from murus and the prefix in- (meaning "in" or "within"). Immure, which first appeared in English in the late 16th century, literally means "to wall in" or "to enclose with a wall," but it has extended meanings as well. In addition to senses meaning "to imprison" and "to entomb," the word sometimes has broader applications, essentially meaning "to shut in" or "to confine." One might remark, for example, that a very studious acquaintance spends most of her time "immured in the library" or that a withdrawn teenager "immures himself in his bedroom every night."