immure

American  

[ih-myoor] / ɪˈmjʊər /

verb (used with object)

• immures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• immured,
  past participle,  past
• immuring
  present participle

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.

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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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Participles

• immuring
  present
• immured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• immure
  simple
• immures
  simple
• have immured
  perfect
• has immured
  perfect
• am immuring
  progressive
• are immuring
  progressive
• is immuring
  progressive
• have been immuring
  perfect progressive
• has been immuring
  perfect progressive

Past

• immured
  simple
• had immured
  perfect
• was immuring
  progressive
• were immuring
  progressive
• had been immuring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will immure
  simple
• will have immured
  perfect
• will be immuring
  progressive
• will have been immuring
  perfect progressive

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

See Examples For:

immure immures immured immuring

Other walls would immure Cobscook, the lower bay, 50 sq. mi. more.

From Time Magazine Archive

The U.S. has had to learn--repeatedly, with every immigrant wave--that it cannot immure itself behind a wall of immigration restrictions and cultural purity.

From Time Magazine Archive

They would take her from him certainly; perhaps immure her in a convent.

From Romance by Joseph Conrad

If I can give any good advice    Most certainly I will; In your stone bower yourself immure    From the approaching ill.

From Little Engel a ballad with a series of epigrams from the Persian by George Henry Borrow

Else, my fair! thy early life ’twill cost thee: And beneath the walls they will immure thee!”

From Servian Popular Poetry by John Bowring

E'en to the darkened dungeon that immures Thy soul, some feeble glimmer finds its way.

From Old-Fashioned Ethics and Common-Sense Metaphysics With Some of Their Applications by William Thomas Thornton

From the humanist point of view, it immures the mind in the study of remote epochs and past civilisations, and does nothing to prepare the pupil for the fulfilment of contemporary duties.

From The Forerunners by Romain Rolland

My acquaintance with Mrs. Gerome is too slight to warrant the utterance of an opinion relative to her idiosyncrasies, but I am afraid cynicism rather than grief immures her from society.

From Vashti or, Until Death Us Do Part by Augusta J. Evans Wilson

Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, Outrageous to devour, immures us round Ninefold; and gates of burning adamant, Barred over us, prohibit all egress.

From Paradise Lost by John Milton

This is the cloister Where he immures me—Naples' gayest revels; The only bar wherewith he hedges me Is his unbounded trust, that leaves me free.

From The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1 by Emma Lazarus

Abandoned by or cut off from their families, they are immured in lonely old age, waiting with restless resignation as the hours of their lives wind down.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Instead, water was directed at the burnt trucks for hours in order to cool down the batteries enough to move them to storage, wherein they could be immured in sand or submerged entirely in water.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 24, 2023

Such findings remain mostly immured in the academy, however.

From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2020

“She is a friendless orphan,” said Levy, “whose relatives have immured her in an asylum without ever producing her for the court.”

From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2019

The second chamber, known as The Reserved Cabinet, contains the famous Venus of the Capitol—a Greek statue, found immured in a wall upon the Quirinal.

From Walks in Rome by Augustus J. C. Hare

Whether he’s an exemplar of patient fortitude or of contemptible cowardice, Assange, 44, has managed to frustrate the British and Swedish governments by immuring himself within the embassy, which is treated as Ecuadorean territory.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2015

He learned this fact by immuring himself in an air-conditioned laboratory for twelve days last winter.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Sacred College consisted at the time of twenty-seven cardinals, four of whom were absent at distant sees and unable to reach Rome in time for the immuring of the Conclave.

From The Life of Cesare Borgia by Rafael Sabatini

From dark immuring walls and dingy ways of trade, From high society's luxurious stately homes, From lounging places by the park or promenade, From rural dwellings canopied in sylvan shade, The tourist comes.

From Poems Vol. IV by Hattie Howard

I am amazed, Don Lorenzo, how you could possibly think of immuring so charming a Girl within the walls of a Cloister!'

From The Monk; a romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis