▪ I. † mure, n. Obs.
[a. F. mur:—L. mūrum (mūrus).]
1. A wall. Also transf. and fig.
| 1471 Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) I. 271 He..fortefied the Cyte of Troye with mures & towrs. a 1552 Leland Itin. (1768) II. 79 Rogerus le Poure..cast a great Dike without it, and made a false Mure without the Dike. 1577 Settle Frobisher's 2nd Voy. in Hakluyt (1589) 624 At our first comming the streights seemed to be shut vp with a long mure of yce. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. iv. 119. 1651 Jer. Taylor Clerus Dom. 3 There was never any people but had their Priests..and kept holy things within a mure. |
2. quasi-adj. in crown-mure = mural crown; also Comb. in mure-crowned adj. rare—1.
| 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece iii. 238 Another I saw..of silver, with a Mure-crowned Head. Ibid. 264 A Figure, with a Crown-mure, with these Letters about it. |
▪ II. mure, a. Obs. exc. dial. (East Angl.: see E.D.D.)
Also mewre, meure, moyre, mur, meuer.
[a. OF. meür, meüre, mod.F. mûr, mûre ripe, mature.]
a. Grave, modest, demure. b. Mature (in phrase mure deliberation).
| c 1440 Jacob's Well xli. 254 Þe secunde fote in brede [of frenschip] is benignite, þat is, to suffere, & to be mure, & noȝt veniable, ne holde wratthe in herte. 1442 T. Beckington Corr. (Rolls) II. 215 By commune and mure deliberacion t'acertaine your said Mageste of such inconvenients as [etc.]. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 7678 Moyre and sobyr in worde and dede. c 1500 Melusine xxiv. 160 He purueyed of remede by good & meure deliberacion of his counseill. |
c. Comb.: mure-hearted a. (dial.), tender-hearted (see E.D.D.).
▪ III. mure, v.
(mjʊə(r))
Forms: 6 mowre, 5– mure. pa. pple. 4 mwryt, 5 mewred, 5–6 muryd(e, 6 murid, muryed.
[a. F. murer:—L. mūrāre, f. mūr-us mure n.]
1. trans. To wall in, to surround with a wall or walls; to fortify. = immure v. 1. Also with up, in.
| c 1440 Mandeville (1839) xxvii. 277 He had let muren alle the mountayne aboute with a stronge walle and a fair. 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. cxl. 126 Howsis, Castellis, and townes strongely muryd. 1503 Hawes Examp. Vir. xii. 215 But sapyence with her wordes me mured With walles of comfort makynge me mery. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. lii, All other Abbies are strongly walled and mured about. 1780 Von Troil Iceland 189 This bath, which is large enough to contain 50 persons at one time, is mured in with a wall of basalt. |
2. To block up, or build up (a door, gate, etc.), by means of bricks and mortar, stones, etc. Also with up.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 164 Thai or day, throu mekill pane, Had mwryt vp the ȝet agane. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxcviii. 689 Let vs enclose ourselfe in this towne, and mure vp all our gates. 1673 Bp. S. Parker Reproof Reh. Transp. 519 Mure up your school doors. 1807 J. Barlow Columb. vii. 632 There lodge their tons of powder and retire, Mure the dread passage, wave the fatal fire. |
| transf. and fig. 1581 Mulcaster Positions (1887) 69 Such fleshy parts..do..as it were mure up, and stop the passage. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. xii. 34 He tooke a muzzel strong Of surest yron..: Therewith he mured up his mouth along. |
b. To wall up the doors of; to stop the means of access to. With up.
| 1550 Sir R. Bowes in Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. (1828) iii. II. 200 The said utter courde were best, as me think, to be mowred upp. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 124 Why not adjourn the Term, mure up Westminster-hall [etc.]. |
3. To shut up or enclose within walls; to imprison; to confine as in a prison or fortress. = immure v. 2. Also with up.
In some examples the vb. app. refers to the alleged walling up in cells of anchorites (who were fed through a hole in the wall) and of persons condemned to perish by famine.
| a 1450 Knt. de La Tour (1906) 73 He kylde hym, and dyde his wyf to be mewred and putte in pryson perpetuel. 1530 Palsgr. 642/1 It is a payne to be mured up in a stone wall lyke an anker. 1611 Bible Josh. x. heading, The fiue Kings are mured in a caue. 1670 tr. Bernier's Mogol Emp. (1676) I. 179 The Women were mured up, where they dyed of hunger and misery. 1799 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. III. 104 Some youth, one mur'd in squalid city jails. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest xxvi, [They] are not a little tired of being mured up in the cottage. 1888 Amélie Rives Quick or Dead vii. (1889) 82 They could never voluntarily have mured themselves in labyrinths of brick and stone during these late autumn days. |
b. refl. To shut oneself up.
| 1608 Bp. Hall Epist. i. v, An English-man, so madly devout, that he had wilfully mur'd up himselfe as an Anachoret. 1893 Black Handsome Humes I. i. 16 She said it was a pity he mured himself up in his college at Oxford. |
▪ IV. mure
obs. f. mare n.1, mire, moor n.1, myrrh.