adjure
Americanverb (used with object)
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to charge, bind, or command earnestly and solemnly, often under oath or the threat of a penalty.
-
to entreat or request earnestly or solemnly.
verb
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to command, often by exacting an oath; charge
-
to appeal earnestly to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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adjuresimple
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adjuressimple
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have adjuredperfect
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has adjuredperfect
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am adjuringprogressive
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are adjuringprogressive
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is adjuringprogressive
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have been adjuringperfect progressive
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has been adjuringperfect progressive
Past
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adjuredsimple
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had adjuredperfect
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was adjuringprogressive
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were adjuringprogressive
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had been adjuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of adjure
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word adjūrāre. See ad-, jury 1
Explanation
The verb adjure is a heavy-duty synonym of the word "ask," with more of a demanding tone. For example, you might have to adjure someone to tell the truth. You get a strong sense of the word adjure when you realize that the jure part is similar to "jury." Both come from the Latin jūrāre "swear," which in turn comes from jūs, jūr- "law" (as in justice and jurist). In 14th-century Middle English, the word suggested someone affirming something by swearing with an oath. So adjure means to command solemnly, as in "She adjured him to present the events precisely as he witnessed them."
Vocabulary lists containing adjure
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This is because they not only bestow praise; they also adjure the congratulatee to continue the good work�or else.
From Time Magazine Archive
“You wouldn’t be homesick at all, Dot, if your imagination had the speed of your hoofs,” he leaned down to adjure his horse, after a habit formed on many a lonelier trail.
From Lonesome Town by Dorrance, Ethel
"I adjure you to consider what you are saying, and the possible consequences of such a promise!"
From Too Rich A Romance by Streckfuss, Adolph
I speak to thee, the sophist, the talker-down Of scorn by scorn, the sinner against gods, The reverencer of men, the thief of fire,— I speak to thee and adjure thee!
From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Vol. I by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
The high priest… said… I adjure thee by the living God, that tell us whether thou be the Christ.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
"Let's not look like we're flying," she adjures, flapping her elbows.
From Time Magazine Archive
"For God's sake," adjures Frimbo, "get on a train!"
From Time Magazine Archive
He adjures the twelve men before him to "weigh the evidence carefully."
From Certain Success by Hawkins, Norval A.
He said,—and flung Around her neck his arms; and by his life, The life of Merops, and his sisters' hopes Of nuptial bliss, adjures her to obtain Proofs of his birth celestial.
From The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II by Howard, J. J.
Caiaphas adjures Him by their common God to answer, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
From The Gospel According to St. Mark by Chadwick, G. A.
One William McAndrew, writing in the November World's Work, adjured me to compose verses that, if memorized, would serve as a reminder to children to be careful when crossing the streets.
From Time Magazine Archive
"No nit-picking," Vice President Nixon adjured his colleagues, but the Cabinet eventually sent out to the President a file of verbatim reaction that piled 1� inches high.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Comfort me with apples," adjured Solomon, not foreseeing the day when they would cost 25� apiece at the supermarket.
From Time Magazine Archive
Good-humoredly, he adjured photographers to picture his "bad" eye as well as his good.
From Time Magazine Archive
She had adjured the latter in the most solemn manner to leave all and come at once if he ever felt a spark of love for her or a scintilla of respect for her mistress.
From The Maid of Honour (Vol. 3 of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Wingfield, Lewis
But before adjuring court, Orbus reminded Strauss-Kahn that the bail was not meant as a punishment, but to ensure that he appeared at the required hearings and did not flee justice.
From Time ● Jul. 1, 2011
For some 20 years he has been adjuring, adverting, advising his countrymen to discover in their fragmentary selves a Sense of the Whole.
From Time Magazine Archive
The classic manuals, written by starchy Englishmen and rock- ribbed Yankees, try to take all the fun out of writing, grimly adjuring the writer to avoid offbeat words, figures of speech, and playful alliteration.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Barney was volubly adjuring the startled natives to be aisy; but they were yelling, running this way and that, tumbling over one another in the darkness.
From Samba A Story of the Rubber Slaves of the Congo by Strang, Herbert
He sent for Captain Corke, and acquainted him with his design, adjuring him to regard me in all things as his deputy, and to take me fully into his counsels.
From Palm Tree Island by Strang, Herbert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
