insure
part of speech
verb (insure, insures, insured, insuring)
meaning for a pupil
1) (money) To insure something is to pay a company a small amount regularly so that, if it is lost, damaged or stolen, the company pays you money. tree →
2) (money) To insure a person means to buy insurance that pays out if they are ill, hurt or die. tree →
3) To protect against a bad result: practising insures against mistakes (more often spelled «ensure» or «insure against» in US English). tree →
4) Insure can also mean to make certain that something will happen, especially something good. tree →
sense in the lessons
In adult life and money lessons: insure the car, insure the house, travel insurance. In stories: «Luckily the house was insured». It tells the reader there is a plan to pay for loss.
examples
- Dad insures the car every year. tree →
- Is your bike insured against theft? tree →
- They insured the house against fire and floods. tree →
- We insured our luggage before the holiday. tree →
- The violin is insured for a lot of money. tree →
- Mum pays a monthly sum to insure our home. tree →
- Wearing a helmet is one way to insure against injury. tree →
- In conclusion, the voice assured her, that compliance with the above conditions would insure for her a safe return to the realms of light. tree →
note
Noun: insurance; the money you pay is a premium. Trap: «insure» (cover with insurance) vs «ensure» (make sure) vs «assure» (tell someone confidently). In UK English «ensure» is used for «make sure»; in US English «insure» is sometimes used for it too. Maths: a premium is paid often (e.g. monthly), and the payout is only made if something goes wrong.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «insure» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.