n. The act of insuring or assuring against loss; a system of business by which a company or corporation (called an insurance company, or, rarely, assurance company or society) guarantees the insured to a specified extent and under stipulated conditions against pecuniary loss arising from such contingencies as loss of or damage to property by fire or the efforts to extinguish fire (fire-insurance), or by shipwreck or disaster at sea (marine insurance), or by explosion, breakage, or other accidents to property, or the loss of future earnings, either through disablement (accident-insurance) or through death (life-insurance), etc. Also called assurance.n. Specifically In law, a contract by which one party, for an agreed consideration (which is proportioned to the risk involved), undertakes to compensate the other for loss on a specified thing, from specified causes.n. The premium paid for insuring property, life, etc.n. Engagement; betrothal.