Definition
To put in ure means to put into practice, operation, or effect — to carry out or execute something, particularly a law, right, custom, or legal provision. The phrase appears in old English statutes and legal records as a way of saying that a rule or entitlement is being actively applied or exercised rather than merely existing on paper.
The phrase is archaic and is encountered almost exclusively in historical legal materials. It is sometimes rendered as "to put in use," which reflects the same meaning and was used interchangeably in early sources.
Common Confusion
Researchers occasionally misread "to put in ure" as "to put in use" without recognizing that the two phrases were distinct renderings of the same concept — they are not different legal standards but alternate spellings of a single archaic construction. Similarly, "ure" should not be confused with the surname Ure or with "ewer" (a vessel). Context in historical legal documents will almost always make the operative meaning clear once the phrase is recognized.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational hazard in historical legal research precisely because it looks unfamiliar. A researcher encountering "put in ure" in a transcription of an old statute or plea roll may not immediately recognize it as a phrase meaning "put into effect" and may mistake it for a proper noun, a term of art with technical procedural meaning, or a transcription error.
Several practical points for corpus researchers:
First, spelling is unstable across historical sources. Expect variants including "put in ure," "put in use," "putt in ure," and occasionally "put in vre" (where the long u was rendered as v in early print). Any keyword search for this phrase should account for these variants.
Second, "ure" as a standalone word in older legal texts generally carries the sense of practice, use, or operation — cognate with the French "oeuvre" (work) and related to the concept of something being active rather than dormant. Understanding this root helps decode related constructions that may appear nearby in the same document.
Third, the phrase clusters with statutory interpretation contexts in medieval and early modern English law — particularly in discussions of whether a grant, custom, right, or statutory provision has been activated or is merely latent. If you encounter it, look at what immediately precedes it: the subject is almost always a right, law, or power being brought into operation.
Fourth, "to put in ure" is a cousin of related phrases in Burrill — notably "to put upon" (to submit to, as in a defendant putting himself upon the country) and "to put out" (to open, as in cutting windows). These phrases share the same archaic "to put [preposition]" construction and appear in similar historical contexts. Researchers working through glossaries of old English pleading or statutory language should treat these as a cluster.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary shelf source for this term, and its treatment is brief but accurate. Burrill defines "to put in ure" as meaning "to put in practice or effect; to carry into effect" and notes its appearance in old statutes, cross-referencing the standalone entry for "Ure." This is a reliable baseline definition.
No substantive divergence exists among historical legal dictionaries on this term, largely because so few cover it at all. It is absent from most modern legal dictionaries, which reflects its purely archaic status rather than any ambiguity about its meaning. The term did not survive into contemporary legal usage in any recognizable form.
Burrill's cross-reference to "Ure" as a standalone entry is useful: that entry, where present in historical sources, typically confirms that "ure" meant practice or exercise, and that "in ure" meant in use or operation. Researchers who find the cross-reference unhelpful should treat the phrase as a compound meaning "into active operation" and move forward on that basis.