immure

[ ih-myoor ]

verb (used with object)

, im·mured, im·mur·ing.

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

/ 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

Derived Forms

• imˈmurement, noun

Other Words From

• im·murement im·mu·ra·tion [im-y, uh, -, rey, -sh, uh, n], noun
• self-im·murement noun
• self-im·muring adjective
• unim·mured adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of immure¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of immure¹

C16: from Medieval Latin immūrāre, from Latin im- (in) + mūrus a wall

Example Sentences

Portland Fire & Rescue responded to reports of a person immured in a pond near Portland’s Heron Lakes Golf Club at around 8:17 a.m.

From Washington Times

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

Forty-six people perished, many immured by the unrelenting gridiron just below the water’s surface.

From Seattle Times

More than 350 pictures, including many by the leading names of the Ukrainian avant-garde, were immured in the vaults of what is now the National Art Museum in Kyiv, owing to their “counterrevolutionary formalist methods.”

From New York Times

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