Lure Meaning
/lʊə/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounSomething that tempts or attracts, especially one with a promise of reward or pleasure.
nounAn artificial bait attached to a fishing line to attract fish.
Sentence Examples
I could not resist the lure of great profits.
He felt the lure of adventure.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fisherman used a shiny object to ____ the fish into the net.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company used a celebrity endorsement to ____ more customers to its new line of fashion products.
Word Origin & History
From Anglo-Norman lure, from Old French loirre (Modern French leurre), from Frankish *lōþr, from Proto-Germanic *lōþr-, perhaps ultimately related to *laþō (“invitation, calling”), or from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂- (“to hide”). Compare English allure, also from Old French. Probably related to German Luder (“bait”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"How many have with a smile made small account
Of Beauty and her lures"
— 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 2:
"My Faulcon now is ſharpe and paſſing emptie, / And til ſhe ſtoope ſhe muſt not be full gorg'd, / For then ſhe never lookes upon her lure."
— c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 222:
"It had been sixteen years since the BBC’s Grace Wyndham Goldie wrote her internal memo about luring him back to make sociological/scientific TV programmes. Now a second note had circulated, from the science department, proposing that he should present the Corporation’s next educative megaseries."
— 2012, Kate Bassett, “Mid-Seventies Onwards: Operatic beginnings and The Body in Question”, in In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller, London: Oberon Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 219:
"Professor is what you become after teaching for twenty to thirty years. Research Professor is what you then want to become, so you can finally stop worrying about students and do the research that lured you into academia in the first place!"
— 2014, Michel Clasquin-Johnson, What is the difference between a research professor and a professor?:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fisherman used a shiny object to ____ the fish into the net.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The company used a celebrity endorsement to ____ more customers to its new line of fashion products.