secure

English Online Dictionary. What means secure‎? What does secure mean?

English

Alternative forms

• secuer (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sēcūrus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from sē- (“without”) + cūra (“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/
• 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.
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.
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.
8. (obsolete) Overconfident; incautious; careless.
9. Certain to be achieved or gained; assured.

Antonyms

• insecure

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

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

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• “secure”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “secure”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

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

Italian

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

secure

1. feminine plural of securo

Anagrams

• uscere

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) 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 Latin) 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

Alternative forms

• săcure — archaic

Etymology

Inherited from Latin secūris, secūrem. Compare Italian scure.

Pronunciation

Noun

secure f (plural securi)

1. axe, hatchet
2. battle axe, halberd

Declension

Synonyms

• topor