inure

From in- +‎ ure. See also the variant form enure.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnjʊə/, /ɪˈnjɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪˈnjʊɹ/

inure (third-person singular simple present inures, present participle inuring, simple past and past participle inured)

1. (transitive) To cause (someone) to become accustomed (to something); to habituate. [from 16th c.]
   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     To none of these evidences of a fearful tragedy of a long dead day did little Tarzan give but passing heed. His wild jungle life had inured him to the sight of dead and dying animals, and had he known that he was looking upon the remains of his own father and mother he would have been no more greatly moved.

   • 1977, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Classics, p. 465:

     Your insults to myself can be endured, / I am a philosopher and am inured. / But there are insults that I will not swallow / That you have levelled at our gods.

   • 1996, Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

     As Tom Paine warned, inuring us to lies lays the groundwork for many other evils.

2. (intransitive, chiefly law) To take effect, to be operative. [from 16th c.]
   • Jim buys a beach house that includes the right to travel across the neighbor's property to get to the water. That right of way is said, cryptically, "to inure to the benefit of Jim".
3. (transitive, obsolete) To commit.
   • Edmund Spenser

     He gan that ladie strongly to appele / Of many hainous crimes by her enured.

• Nueir, ruine, urine

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /iˈnuː.re/, [ɪˈnuː.rɛ]

inūre

1. second-person singular present active imperative of inūrō