lure

plural lures

1. alsofigurativelySomething that tempts or attracts, especially one with a promise of reward or pleasure.

   How many have with a smile made small account Of Beauty and her lures

   1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 2

2. fishingAn artificial bait attached to a fishing line to attract fish.

   the inch-at-a-time flutter of a surface lure

   July 1976, Frank Sargent, “High-Speed Bass”, in Field & Stream, page 111

3. falconryA bunch of feathers attached to a line, used in falconry to recall the hawk.

   My Faulcon now is ſharpe and paſſing emptie, / And til ſhe ſtoope ſhe muſt not be full gorg'd, / For then ſhe never lookes upon her lure.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 222

4. A velvet smoothing brush.

present singular third person lures · participle present luring · participle past lured · past lured

1. transitiveTo attract by temptation, appeal, or guile.

   Professor is what you become after teaching for twenty to thirty years. Research Professor is what you then want to become, so you can finally stop worrying about students and do the research that lured you into academia in the first place!

   2014, Michel Clasquin-Johnson, What is the difference between a research professor and a professor?

   1 more example

   It had been sixteen years since the BBC’s Grace Wyndham Goldie wrote her internal memo about luring him back to make sociological/scientific TV programmes. Now a second note had circulated, from the science department, proposing that he should present the Corporation’s next educative megaseries.

   2012, Kate Bassett, “Mid-Seventies Onwards: Operatic beginnings and The Body in Question”, in In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller, London: Oberon Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 219

   Synonyms: entice

2. transitiveTo attract fish with a lure.
3. transitivefalconryTo recall a hawk with a lure.

plural lures

1. alternativeentertainmentAlternative form of lur.