Word of the Day

Monday, December 20, 1999

inure

\in-YOOR\ , transitive verb;

To make accustomed or used to something painful, difficult, or inconvenient; to harden; to habituate; as, "inured to drudgery and distress.

intransitive verb:

To pass into use; to take or have effect; to be applied; to serve to the use or benefit of; as, a gift of lands inures to the heirs.

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Quotes:

They were a hard-driven, hardworking crowd inured to the hardest living, and they found their recreation in hard drinking and hard fighting.

-- Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp

How does one become inured to unpredictable moments of helplessness?

-- Stephen Kuusisto, Planet Of The Blind

At school, he repeatedly jabbed the nib of his pen into his hand, wanting to inure himself to agony.

-- Peter Conrad, "Enter the philosopher, with an axe", The Observer, September 8, 2002

Origin:

Inure derives from prefix in-, "in" + obsolete ure, "use, work," from Old French uevre, "work," from Latin opera, "trouble, pains, exertion," from opus, "work."