secure definition

English secure definition

Alternative forms

• secuer (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin securus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from se- (“without”) + cura (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈkjʊə(ɹ)/, /səˈkjɔː(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /səˈkjʊɹ/, /səˈkjɝ/, /səˈkjɔɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: se‧cure

Adjective

secure (comparative securer or more secure, superlative securest or most secure)

1. Free from attack or danger; protected.
   • 2020 March, Joshua Leifer, “Led Astray”, in The Baffler‎^[1], number 50:

     The vast majority of American Jews not only greatly dislike President Trump but also believe he has made them less safe: according to a May 2019 poll, nearly three-quarters of Jewish voters believe American Jews are less secure under Trump than they were before, 71 percent disapprove of Trump’s overall job performance, and nearly 60 percent believe that he bears at least some responsibility for the synagogue shootings carried out by white nationalists in Pittsburgh and Poway.

2. Free from the danger of theft; safe.
3. Free from the risk of eavesdropping, interception or discovery; secret.
4. Free from anxiety or doubt; unafraid.
   • 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:

     But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes.

   • 1861, Elizabeth Gaskell, The Grey Woman:

     No sooner were we up there, than the old woman dragged the ladder, by which we had ascended, away with a chuckle, as if she was now secure that we could do no mischief, and sat herself down again once more, to doze and await her master's return.

5. Firm and not likely to fail; stable.
6. Free from the risk of financial loss; reliable.
7. Confident in opinion; not entertaining, or not having reason to entertain, doubt; certain; sure; commonly used with of.

   secure of a welcome

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Confidence then bore thee on, secure / Either to meet no danger, or to find / Matter of glorious trial.

8. (obsolete) Overconfident; incautious; careless.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     They were secure where they ought to have been wary, and timorous where they might well have been secure.

9. Certain to be achieved or gained; assured.

   Just when victory seemed secure, they let it slip from their grasp.

Antonyms

• insecure

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• securance
• securely

Related terms

• security

Translations

Verb

secure (third-person singular simple present secures, present participle securing, simple past and past participle secured)

1. To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.
   • 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:

     I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.

2. To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against or from, or formerly with of.

   to secure a creditor against loss; to secure a debt by a mortgage

   • 1831, Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of Religion:

     It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.

3. To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.

   to secure a prisoner; to secure a door, or the hatches of a ship

4. To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.

   to secure an estate

   • 2014 August 26, Jamie Jackson, “Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real”, in The Guardian:

     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.

   • 1911, Flight, page 766:

     [Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To plight or pledge.

Derived terms

• secure arms
• securement

Translations

Further reading

• “secure”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “secure”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Creuse, Rescue, cereus, ceruse, cursee, recuse, rescue, secuer

Italian secure definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈku.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: se‧cù‧re

Adjective

secure

1. feminine plural of securo

Anagrams

• uscere

Latin secure definition

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seˈkuː.re/, [s̠ɛˈkuːrɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈku.re/, [seˈkuːre]

Noun

secūre

1. ablative singular of secūris

Etymology 2

securus +‎ -ē

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seːˈkuː.reː/, [s̠eːˈkuːreː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈku.re/, [seˈkuːre]

Adverb

sēcūrē (comparative sēcūrius, superlative sēcūrissimē)

1. carelessly
2. fearlessly
3. quietly

References

• “secure”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “secure”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• secure in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette

Romanian secure definition

Alternative forms

• săcure (archaic)

Etymology

Inherited from Latin secūris, secūrem. Compare Italian scure.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

secure f (plural securi)

1. axe, hatchet
2. battle axe, halberd

Declension

Synonyms

• topor