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allure - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English aluren, from Old French aleurer, alurer, from a (“to, towards”) (Latin ad) + leurre (“lure”). Compare lure.

allure (countable and uncountable, plural allures)

  1. The power to attract, entice; the quality causing attraction.

the power to attract, entice; the quality causing attraction — see also appeal

allure (third-person singular simple present allures, present participle alluring, simple past and past participle allured)

  1. (transitive) To entice; to attract.

to attempt to draw

From Middle English alure, alour, from Old French alure, aleure (“walk, gait”), from aler (“to go”) +‎ -ure.

allure (countable and uncountable, plural allures)

  1. (dated) Gait; bearing.
    • Harper's Magazine
      The swing, the gait, the pose, the allure of these men.
  2. The walkway along the top of a castle wall, sometimes entirely covered and normally behind a parapet; the wall walk.

Borrowed from French allure.

  • IPA(key): /ˌɑˈlyː.rə/
  • Hyphenation: al‧lu‧re
  • Rhymes: -yːrə

allure f (plural allures, no diminutive)

  1. air, pretension

From aller +‎ -ure.

allure f (plural allures)

  1. appearance, look
  2. speed, pace
    à vive allure ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  3. angle of a boat from the wind
  4. gait (of a horse)

    • 1894, Crafty, À travers Paris, page 4:

      . . . un des chevaux du cortège a subitement pris une allure désordonnée que les efforts combinés de son cocher et de son camarade de timon ne sont pas parvenu à modérer.

      . . . one of the horses in the procession suddenly took on a disorderly gait that the combined efforts of its driver and its comrade on the beam were unable to moderate.
  5. chemin de ronde (raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement)