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to incur

to incur

69 6.2
To have to pay or suffer something bad because of what you do
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈkɜr/
  • Formal
translation icon : incurrir en
  • He regretted the decision because it would incur additional costs for the project.
  • incur costs
  • incur expenses
  • incur debts

Every lie we tell ourselves incurs a debt to the truth.

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Examples

  • In addition, software companies, user companies, and universities may incur additional costs because of software piracy.

    Academic text (1991)
  • The nation had just incurred four horrible years of Civil War.

  • What cost did you incur by by doing that?

  • Well, hopefully you guys will incur some of the cost.

  • You know, all the debt that we incur, you know, the next future generations have to bear the burden.

  • That seems right that a lot of a lot of people are willing to incur financial costs in order to promote an agenda.

  • But to a certain extent, any risk that you incur is something that's potentially going to damage you.

  • I'm sensitive to like the costs that are incurred because of this.

  • Even though she'd never been charged with a crime, she had incurred an amazing sum of attorneys' fees.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Left-behind parents also incur significant financial expenses trying to locate and secure the return of their abducted children.

    Academic text (2017)

Antonyms

1.0

To stay away from something or not do it to stop something bad from happening

2.3

Stop something from happening or someone from doing it

How Serious

to suffer
2.0
to incur
  • Formal
69 6.2

Surface Forms

incur infinitive
incurred past
incurred past participle
incurring present participle
incurs third person singular

Etymology

Incur comes from the Latin parts in- meaning 'into' and currere meaning 'to run', so it originally meant 'to run into' something. That's why to incur a cost or a problem is to bring it on yourself because of something you did.