secure
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: note: without the pour–poor merger
ipa: /sɪˈkjʊə(ɹ)/
note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /sɪˈkjɔː(ɹ)/
ipa: /səˈkjʊɹ/
ipa: /səˈkjɝ/
ipa: /səˈkjɔɹ/
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
Forms: form: secures
form: securing
form: secured
form: secured
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: secure
form: secure
form: secured
form: secure
form: securest
form: secured
form: securedst
form: secures
form: secureth
form: secured
form: secure
form: secured
form: secure
form: secured
form: secure
form: -
form: securing
form: secured
form: secuer
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin sēcūrus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from sē- (“without”) + cūra (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).
Senses: examples: text: I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.
examples: text: to secure a creditor against loss; to secure a debt by a mortgage
text: It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.
ref: 1831, Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of Religion:
glosses: To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against or from, or formerly with of.
examples: text: to secure a prisoner; to secure a door, or the hatches of a ship
text: All springs for the engine and tender are of the laminated type with plates of carbon steel, which are secured in the spring buckles by a vertical centre rivet.
ref: 1951 March, “British Railways Standard "Britannia" Class 4-6-2 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 186:
glosses: To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.
examples: text: to secure an estate
text: With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive player, are potential targets.
ref: 2014 August 26, Jamie Jackson, “Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real”, in The Guardian:
text: [Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress.
ref: 1911, Flight, page 766:
text: One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.
glosses: To plight or pledge.
Derived terms: secure arms
securement