insure, v.
(ɪnˈʃʊə(r))
[Variant of ensure (with substitution of in-2 for en-1), orig. used in all the senses of that word; now established in sense 4 (cf. ensure 7), and fairly common in senses 5 and 6.]
† 1. trans. To make (a person) sure (of a thing); to give security to (a person) for the fulfilment of something: cf. assure v. 9, ensure v. 1, 2. Obs.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 262/2 Insuryn, or make suere, assecuro. 1681–6 J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 21 Thus Christ..hath taken the most effectual Care to insure the mutual Performance of this everlasting Covenant to both Parties..to insure God of our performing our Part..and to insure us of God's performing his Part. |
† 2. To pledge one's credit to (a person), or to the truth of (a statement); to tell (a person) confidently (that something is so); to guarantee: = assure v. 10, ensure v. 3, 4. Obs.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxi. 36 His self shalle not excuse hym; To you I insure it. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) II. 329 The glas shall shewe the the same I the insure. 1533 Frith Answ. More Wks. (1573) 115/2, I insure you, I neither will nor can cease to speake. c 1560 T. Preston Cambyses in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 220, I insure you he is a king most vile and pernicious. |
† 3. To engage by a pledge or contract, esp. for or by marriage; to betroth, espouse: = assure v. 4, ensure v. 5. Obs. rare.
| 1530 Palsgr. 592/1, I insuer a man or woman by maryage. |
4. Comm. To secure the payment of a sum of money in the event of loss of or damage to property (esp. by casualty at sea, or by fire, or other accident), or of the death or disablement of a person, in consideration of the payment of a premium and observance of certain conditions; to effect an insurance upon. Said either of the person who pays the premium, or of the office or underwriters who undertake the risk. For the latter many offices and writers prefer assure (now esp. in reference to life insurance). The object of the vb. is either a. the amount secured, or b. the property or life, sometimes the person: see quots.
In 17th c. also ensure (sense 7). For usage as to insure and assure see further under insurance 4.
| a. 1635 Draft of Petition to King (P.R.O.) (Walford Encycl. Insur. III. 439), Authorising your petitioner to ensure all your majesty's subjects whatsoever for soe much of their estates combustible as they themselves shall conceive in danger of Fire, not taking above 12d. per centum yearly for soe much soe insured. 1663 Pepys Diary 30 Nov., As much more insured upon his ship and goods as they were worth. 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2322/4 Where all Persons may Insure an Hundred Pound on a Brick House, for Six Shillings for one Year. 1838 De Morgan Ess. Probab. 214, 2l. 13s. 6d. is the premium for insuring 100l. at the end of the year in which a life of 30 fails. 1857 Chambers' Inform. II. 557/1 An individual..incurring a risk in behalf of another, or having a large claim upon him in the form of debt, can insure upon the life of that person such a sum as would be sure to cover all loss in the event of..death. |
| b. 1635 [see a]. 1665 Pepys Diary 18 May, Was before the King..discoursing about insuring some of the King's goods. 1680 Lond. Gaz. No. 1514/4 Samuel Vincent Esq.; and Doctor Nicolas Barbon, and others, have lately made Propositions in Print for Insuring Houses from Fire. 1682 Ibid. No. 1683/4 The City of London are about to Insure Brick-houses at 48s. and 7d. per Cent. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 5 ¶3, I hope that he has been wise enough to insure his House. 1753 Smollett Ct. Fathom (1784) 126/2 He had granted his bond, and been at the expence of insuring his life for the money. 1817 W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 878 Goods were insured on board a vessel on a voyage from Liverpool to Palermo. 1870 T. R. Sprague in Jrnl. Inst. Actuaries XVI. 77 The more correct distinction I believe to be that a man insures the life of himself or of some other person, or his house, or his ship [etc.], and that the Office assures to him in each of these cases a sum of money payable in certain contingencies. Hence the Office is called the assurer or assurers, and the man the assured; while we may speak either of the life assured or the life insured, also of the sum assured or the sum insured, according as we take the point of view of the Office or of the individual. 1883 Chambers' Encycl. V. 603/1 In order to insure a life, the insurer must either himself be ‘the life’, or must have a pecuniary interest in the life. |
c. absol. or intr. To undertake insurance risks; to effect an insurance.
| 1651 [see insurance 5]. 1680 Argts. for insuring Houses from Fire (Walford Encycl. Insur. III. 446), Neither would a man..be disquieted with the too late advice of his friends, every one blaming, and asking why did he not insure? Or be tormented by his own thoughts with the wish I had insured. 1693 Leybourn Panarithmologia (Walford I. 487), Suppose you ship {pstlg}300 of goods for Jamaica..you go to the Assu. Office behind the Royal Exchange in Lond., and there acquaint the clerk you will insure for {pstlg}200 or {pstlg}250, or, if you will, the whole {pstlg}300..upon such ship for so much goods as you have on board. 1828 Webster s.v., This company insures at 3 per cent, or at a low premium. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy-Bk. Prop. Law v. 29 The tenant's neglect to insure, or his insuring in an office.. not authorised by his lease. |
d. (Cf. insurance 4 e.)
| 1911 Act 1 & 2 Geo. V c. 55 §1 All persons so insured (in this Act called ‘insured persons’). |
5. trans. To make certain, to secure, to guarantee (some thing, event, etc.): = assure v. 5, 7 a, ensure v. 8, 9.
| 1681–6 [see sense 1]. 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. vii. xiii. (1849) 450 Such supineness insures the very evil from which it shrinks. 1821 Mrs. Sherwood Hist. Geo. Desmond 19 He had insured for me the situation of a writer on the Bengal establishment. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps vi. §8. 170 Want of care in the points which insure the building's endurance. a 1862 Buckle Civiliz. viii. (1873) 462 An ardour which could hardly fail to insure success. |
6. To make safe, to secure, to guarantee (against, from): = assure v. 1 c, ensure v. 6.
| 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 122, I cannot say, I would insure it from the hands of the common hang⁓man. 1825 Jefferson Autobiog. Wks. 1859 I. 107 A recurrence to these letters now insures me against errors of memory. a 1864 J. D. Burns Mem. & Rem. (1879) 361 The evidence of trials past does not insure them against trials that may come. |
Hence inˈsuring vbl. n. (usually in sense 4).
| 1646 W. Bridge Saints Hiding-pl. (1647) 17 But there is an Insuring-Office set up in the Gospel, as to the venture of our eternities. 1681 Lond. Gaz. No. 1668/4 The City of London have published their Intentions to Insure Houses from Fire, which may delay some Persons from Insuring. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 83 The Friendly Society of London, for Insuring of Houses. 1815 Zeluca III. 59 She had done with the insuring system. |