inure
Americanverb (used with object)
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inures,
present (3rd person singular)
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inured,
past participle, past
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inuring
present participle
verb (used without object)
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inures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
inured,
past participle, past
-
inuring
present participle
-
to come into use; take or have effect.
-
to become beneficial or advantageous.
verb
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to cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate
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(intr) (esp of a law, etc) to come into operation; take effect
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inuresimple
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inuressimple
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have inuredperfect
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has inuredperfect
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am inuringprogressive
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are inuringprogressive
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is inuringprogressive
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have been inuringperfect progressive
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has been inuringperfect progressive
Past
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inuredsimple
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had inuredperfect
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was inuringprogressive
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were inuringprogressive
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had been inuringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inure
First recorded in 1480–90; verb use of phrase in ure, en ure “in use, customary,” from Anglo-French en ure “in use, at work,” equivalent to en in + ure (from Latin opera, plural of opus ) “work”; compare French oeuvre
Explanation
To inure is to get used to something difficult or unpleasant. If after spending an hour in your brother's room, you stop noticing the stinky-sock smell, you have become inured to the odor. Although the Latin roots of inure mean "in work," it may be easier to think of "in use" when you see inure. Got new shoes that give you blisters? When they are "in use" long enough, your feet will become inured to the spots that rub, and while you may have calluses, you will not be in pain. You can be inured to more abstract things too. When weathermen constantly play up the next big snowstorm or blizzard, you become inured to it and stop paying attention to them.
Vocabulary lists containing inure
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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 will not inure to the benefit of the president.”
From Washington Times ● Apr. 15, 2022
"This will not inure to the benefit of the president."
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2022
Diggs appeared to inure his ankle on an 8-yard run by Eno Benjamin on a first-and-19 play.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2022
Perhaps then we’ll avoid practices that inure future generations to what’s really important.
From Washington Post ● May 25, 2018
He needed to expose Seabiscuit to a similarly unruly gate horse and inure him to the sight of it.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
It inures us to horrors, and it normalizes the worst possible things.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2019
It could be that watching a number of episodes in succession inures a person somewhat to the off-putting grime that dominated 1971 New York City.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2019
From our perspective, the advantage inures to the well-established, the well-organized and the well-funded.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 8, 2018
At the same time he’s an actor playing a role, and his real-life success largely inures him from reprisal or blowback.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2012
What any elect spirit did, inures to the credit of us all.
From A Hero and Some Other Folks by William A. (William Alfred) Quayle
For much of LIV's four and a bit seasons, observers have become inured to the riches of its 14 tournaments.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
U.S. stock markets are becoming inured to tariff shocks.
From Barron's ● Jan. 27, 2026
First, investors may have grown inured to Trump.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026
We may be too inured these days to the unceasing drumbeat of immigration’s realities and disinformation to expect “The Old Oak,” as deeply emotional as it is, to have a similar impact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
An Olympic rowing career had left Porter Collins a bit inured to the pain of others, as he assumed they usually didn’t know what pain was.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Las Vegas didn’t challenge the rest of the way and star guard Chelsea Gray went back to the locker room midway through the fourth quarter after inuring her foot.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 15, 2023
They had to be there daily, inuring themselves to dismay.
From Time Magazine Archive
The great prestige inuring to the Union from territorial control would thereby cease.
From The United States of America, Part 1 by Edwin Erle Sparks
He employed himself in inuring his body to labor and violent exercise; and habituated himself to go bareheaded in the hottest and the coldest weather, and to walk on foot at all seasons.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Arthur Hugh Clough
There inuring herself, with all a mother's courage, to behold without shuddering his maddest freaks, by her sweet singing and playing she gradually lured him to her side, and awakened his better self.
From Baron Bruno Or, the Unbelieving Philosopher, and Other Fairy Stories by Louisa Morgan
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.
