incur

incur, contract, catch are comparable when they mean to bring upon oneself something unpleasant, onerous, or injurious.

Incur may or may not imply foreknowledge of what is to happen

{

incur a debt

}

{

incur criticism

}

but it usually implies responsibility for the acts which bring about what is incurred

{

he simply couldn't bring himself to incur the loss of face involved in admitting that he didn't know enough English— Durdin

}

{

an environment containing all the classic elements for incurring mental fatigue— Armstrong

}

Contract carries a stronger implication than incur of acquirement, but it is equally inexplicit in its lack of clear suggestion as to whether the acquisition derives from intention or accident

{

had contracted con-siderable debts in granting loans to the king— Cruickshanks

}

{

contract a disease

}

{

contract bad habits

}

But contract often distinctively implies a meeting between two things that permits either an interchange of qualities

{

each from each contract new strength and light— Pope

}

or a transmission of something from one to the other

{

they say that sherry ought to live for a while in an old brandy cask, so as to contract a certain convincing quality from the cask's genial timbers— Montague

}

Catch, the least literary and most ordinary of these terms, usually implies infection or something analogous to it

{

catch a heavy cold

}

{

religion, in point of fact, is seldom taught at all; it is caught, by contact with someone who has it— Inge

}

Analogous words: *get, obtain, acquire

Contrasted words: *escape, elude, evade, avoid, shun, eschew: avert, ward, *prevent