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.

---

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

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

"What was Oliver's enmity towards you, that he should immure you here all these years?"

From The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave among the moors... by George Augustus Sala

She might take a sudden resolve and immure herself before I can return!

From Donald McElroy, Scotch Irishman by Willie Walker Caldwell

Can it, can it be, my lord and husband, That so young, thou, reckless, would’st immure me?

From Servian Popular Poetry by John Bowring

No trophy this—a Stone unhewn,   And stands where here the field immures The nameless brave whose palms are won.

From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War by Herman Melville

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

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

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

I didn't know anybody could escape from that awful sort of prison-house in which our—I'm English now—in which our upper class immures itself.

From Michael by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

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

In the century or so since “The Great Gatsby” was published, we have been lost in Gatsby’s house, immured in a never-ending revival.

From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 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

Having no connection with the convent in which she was immured, I did not see her for three months following.

From Monks, Popes, and their Political Intrigues by John Alberger

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

I crave thy pardon for immuring thee in the sea fortress.

From Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Sol Aronson

In our own time the burial of a bottle with coins under a foundation stone is the faded memory of the immuring of a human victim.

From Ecclesiastical Curiosities by Various

If fault there was, it was as wife, in immuring herself in a convent and denying the marriage.

From Beacon Lights of History, Volume 07 Great Women by John Lord