Word.ws English Dictionary

incur

UK/ɪnˈkɜː//ɪnˈkɝ/

incur verb: to bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to.

Verb

incur (third-person singular simple present incurs, present participle incurring, simple past and past participle incurred)

  1. (transitive) To bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to.
    • Near-synonym: contract (debts, etc.)
    • Cruelty incurs calamity.
    Synonyms:
    contract
    1. (transitive) To render (somebody, or oneself) liable or subject to.
      • Near-synonyms: entail, invoke
      • The least neglect of duty will incur[...] the penalty of thirty-nine well laid on in the morning.1861, Francis Colburn Adams, “Chapter VII”, in An Outcast
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To enter or pass into.
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To fall within a period or scope; to occur; to run into danger.

incur meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

incur in Hindi

to incur, bring upon oneself
बिसाहना bisāhnā

incur in Tamil

ஆட்படு, உள்ளாகு

incur in Urdu

باندھنا, برداشت کرنا, ڈالنا, دکھ جھیلنا, مصیبت میں پڑنا

incur in Bengali

ঘাঁটা, শিকার হওয়া, দায়গ্রস্ত হওয়া
More languagesFewer languages
incur in Malayalam
ബാദ്ധ്യസ്ഥനാവുക, വരുത്തിവയ്ക്കുക, ഇടയാക്കുക, നേരിടുക
incur in Kannada
ಗುರಿಯಾಗು, ಭಾಗಿಯಾಗು, ಈಡಾಗು, ತಂದುಕೊಳ್ಳು
incur in Sanskrit
प्राप् prāp
incur in Arabic
كَبَّدَ kabbada

Examples of incur in a sentence

  • I've incurred scorn and odium for my actions.
  • [T]he master in his wrath may easily incur worse evil himself than he inflicts—[...]1891, “The Hellenica”, in Henry Graham Dakyns, transl., The works of Xenophon, Book 5, Chapter 3:
  • And here it is to be noted that hatred is incurred as well on account of good actions as of bad;1910, Nicholas Machiavelli, translated by Ninian Hill Thomson, The Prince, Chapter XIX:
  • Lest you incur me much more damage in my fame than you have done me pleasure in preserving my life.1605 August (first performance), Geo[rge] Chapman, Ben Ionson, Ioh[n] Marston, Eastward Hoe. […], London: […] [George Eld] for William...

All 30 example sentences with incur

Synonyms of incur

Forms of incur

third-person singular presentincurs
present participleincurring
past participleincurred
pastincurred
alternative formencur

Past tense of incur: incurred

Origin of incur

From Middle English incurren, from Anglo-Norman encurir, Middle French encourir, from Old French encorre, from Latin incurrere.

Words formed from incur

Words that rhyme with incur

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about incur

What does incur mean?
Incur means to bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to.
What is incur in Hindi?
Incur in Hindi is बिसाहना (bisāhnā). See Incur meaning in Hindi.
How do you use incur in a sentence?
I've incurred scorn and odium for my actions.
What part of speech is incur?
Incur is a verb.
How do you pronounce incur?
Incur is pronounced /ɪnˈkɜː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of incur?
The past tense of incur is incurred.

Words near incur in the dictionary

  1. incunabula
  2. incunabular
  3. incunabulist
  4. incunabulists
  5. incunabulum
  6. incur
  7. incurability
  8. incurable
  9. incurableness
  10. incurables
  11. incurably

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: incur (page history and authors); बिसाहना (Hindi) (page history and authors); incur (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incur (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Incur (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incur (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incur (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); प्राप् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-incur.ogg, en-au-incur.ogg.

Cite this entry: “incur.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incur. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.