Word Of The Day

Word of the Day for Monday September 19, 2005

immure \ih-MYUR\, transitive verb:

1. To enclose within walls, or as if within walls; hence, to shut up; to imprison; to incarcerate.
2. To build into a wall.
3. To entomb in a wall.

Not surprisingly, Sally shuddered at the thought of being immured in the black cave, to die slowly and hopelessly, far below the sunny hillside.
--Peter Pierce, "The Fiction of Gabrielle Lord," Australian Literary Studies, October 1999

True, there was a Mughal emperor in Delhi until 1857, but he was emperor in name only, the shadow of a memory, described by Lord Macaulay as 'a mock sovereign immured in a gorgeous state prison'.
--Anthony Read, The Proudest Day

When I tried to think clearly about this, I felt that my mind was immured, that it couldn't expand in any direction.
--Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon

Immured by privilege in a way of life that offered little scope, army wives were often enfeebled by boredom.
--Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography

Immure comes from Medieval Latin immurare, from Latin in-, "in" + murus, "wall." It is related to mural, a painting applied to a wall.

Synonyms: cloister; imprison; incarcerate.