▪ I. † inˈjure, n. Chiefly Sc. Obs.
Also 5–6 injur, 6 -juir (-gure).
[a. F. injure (1266 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. injūria.]
By-form of injury.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 969 (1018) O Auctor of nature, Is þis an honour to þi deite, That folk vngiltyf suffren here Iniure. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Baptista 980 Þai..went to þe emperoure, to plenȝe apone þare fader Iniure. c 1450 Holland Howlat 921 All the fowlis..plenȝeit to Natur Of this intollerable injur. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxiii. 38 Be just and joyws and do to non ingure. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. 101 Thay ar persuadet that..slauchtir and sik iniures be the lawe of God [be] forbidne. Ibid. vi. 339 marg., He remittis the iniuir done against him. |
▪ II. injure, v.
(ˈɪndʒə(r))
[Back-formation from injury n.; cf. rare OF. injurer (13th c. in Godef.). It displaced the earlier verb injury between 1580 and 1640.]
1. trans. To do injustice or wrong to (a person); to wrong.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 71, I do protest I neuer iniur'd thee. 1594 ― Rich. III, i. iii. 56 When haue I iniur'd thee? when done thee wrong? 1609 B. Jonson Case is Altered i. ii, I injure him In being thus cold-conceited of his faith. 1611 Bible Gal. iv. 12, I am as ye are, ye haue not iniured me at all. 1693 Creech in Dryden's Juvenal xiii. (1697) 334 Exalted Socrates! Divinely brave! Injur'd He fell, and dying He forgave. 1718 Freethinker No. 59 ¶14 The Wretch, guilty of such Baseness, injures Himself, more than Thee. 1868 Bain Ment. & Mor. Sc. Ethics ii. (1875) 494 Can one be injured voluntarily? It seems not, for what a man consents to is not injury. Nor can a person injure himself. |
† 2. To do outrage to (a person) in speech; to speak injuriously to or of; to insult, revile, abuse, slander offensively. Obs.
| 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis 257 in Satir. Poems Reform. xlv, He was stubburne in his talk; Iniurit the elders. 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxx. (1632) 105 These prisoners..outragiously defie and injure them [their keepers]. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. xxv, The Bun-sellers or Cake-bakers..did injure them most outragiously, calling them pratling gablers, lickorous gluttons. |
3. To do hurt or harm to; to inflict damage or detriment upon; to hurt, harm, damage; to impair in any way.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 140 That she..can become therein more forcible, or lesse injured. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 9, I would not be thy executioner, I flye thee for I would not iniure thee. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. (1848) 379 You must not suffer your charity too much to injure your judgment. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 1057 Least Cold Or Heat should injure us, his timely care Hath unbesaught provided. 1771 Junius Lett. lviii 302, I shuld be sorry to injure the character of a man. 1793 A. Seward Lett. (1811) III. 232, I am afraid they will injure their healths. 1859 [see injury n. 3]. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxii. 159 He had..injured himself in crossing the Gemmi. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ii. 22 When the eyeball..is injured by the fist, it is always by a blow aimed from beneath. |
| absol. a 1699 Temple (J.), They injure by chance in a crowd, and without a design; then hate always whom they have once injured. |
b. intr. (for refl.) To become injured, to receive injury.
| 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. i. 22 The hay being found to injure more rapidly after it has been opened. |
Hence ˈinjuring vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1651 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. iii. §4. 38 An injury can be done to no man but him with whom we enter Covenant..and therefore damaging and injuring are often disjoyn'd. 1877 Furnivall Introd. Leopold Shakspere 91 So injured friend forgiving meets injuring friend forgiven. |