Other forms: lured, lures, luring
To lure is to draw somebody in with something tempting. Lure them away, lured by the money, lure it out.
It always implies that the attraction is a device rather than an honest offer, which is why lure sounds like a warning. As a noun, a lure is the bait: a fishing lure is the artificial one on a line, and the lure of something is its pull — the lure of the city. In falconry, a lure is the feathered object used to call a hawk back, which is where the word comes from.
1verblureTo draw somebody in with something tempting.
“The smell of fresh bread lured customers into the bakery.”
2nounattractSomething used to attract.
“The lure of the city took about half of them within a decade.”
lure is an attracting.
Also accepted in games: entice
Old French loirre was the falconer's lure, from a Frankish word. Calling a hawk down with a feathered decoy is the original meaning, and every other use is a metaphor from it.
Proto-Indo-European
*leh₂- — to hide
Proto-Germanic
*lōþr-
Frankish
*lōþr
Old French
loirre
Anglo-Norman
lure
English, today
lure
Built from
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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs