immure

American  

[ih-myoor] / ɪˈmyʊər /

verb (used with object)

immured, immuring

1. to enclose within walls.

2. to shut in; seclude or confine.

3. to imprison.

4. to build into or entomb in a wall.

5. Obsolete. to surround with walls; fortify.

---

immure British  

/ ɪˈmjʊə /

verb

1. archaic to enclose within or as if within walls; imprison

2. to shut (oneself) away from society

3. obsolete to build into or enclose within a wall

---

Other Word Forms

• immuration
  noun
• immurement
  noun
• self-immurement
  noun
• self-immuring
  adjective
• unimmured
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of immure

1575–85; < Medieval Latin immūrāre, equivalent to Latin im- im- ¹ + -mūrāre, verbal derivative of mūrus wall ( cf. mural)

Explanation

When you immure someone or something, you put it behind a wall, as in a jail or some other kind of confining space. You may recognize the -mur- in immure as the root for "wall," as in mural, which is a painting on a wall, or intramural, literally "inside the walls," as, for instance, the walls of a school — intramural sports are played among teams from the same school. You don't need a jail to immure someone. Rapunzel was immured in her tower. At the end of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the lovers are immured in the tomb.

Example Sentences

"Immure yourself in Roccaleone, and thence hurl defiance at Urbino and Babbiano, refusing to surrender until they grant your terms—that you are to marry as you list."

From Love-at-Arms by Sabatini, Rafael

Immure, im-mūr′, v.t. to wall in: to shut up: to imprison.—n.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various