secure

Free from attack or danger; protected.

Adjective

  1. Free from attack or danger; protected.
    • The vast majority of American Jews not only greatly dislike President Trump but also believe he has made them less safe: according to a May 2019 poll, nearly three-quarters of Jewish voters believe American Jews are...
  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.
    • But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson,...
    • No sooner were we up there, than the old woman dragged the ladder, by which we had ascended, away with a chuckle, as if she was now secure that we could do no mischief, and sat herself down again once more, to doze and...
  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.
    • secure of a welcome
    • Confidence then bore thee on, secure / Either to meet no danger, or to find / Matter of glorious trial. - 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter...
  8. Overconfident; incautious; careless.
    • They were secure where they ought to have been wary, and timorous where they might well have been secure. - 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume...
  9. Certain to be achieved or gained; assured.
    • Just when victory seemed secure, they let it slip from their grasp.

Origin

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”).

Forms

securer more secure securest most secure secuer

Antonyms

insecure

Hyponyms

computationally secure fail-secure secure by design selfsecure

Related

security

Derived

biosecure cybersecure food-secure nonsecure oversecure securance securely secureness securonomics self-secure supersecure ultrasecure unsecure

Verb

  1. To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.
    • I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals,...
  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
    • It secures its possessor of eternal happiness. - 1831, Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of Religion:
  3. To fix in place; 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
    • All springs for the engine and tender are of the laminated type with plates of carbon steel, which are secured in the spring buckles by a vertical centre rivet. - 1951 March, “British Railways Standard "Britannia" Class...
  4. To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.
    • to secure an estate
    • With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley...
    • [Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress. - 1911, Flight, page 766:
  5. To plight or pledge.

Forms

secures securing secured no-table-tags glossary secure securest securedst secureth - secuer

Derived

countersecure oversecure resecure securability securable secure arms securement unsecure