To incur means to bring something upon yourself, usually something unwanted or costly, as a result of your actions. When you incur a debt, you take on money that you'll need to pay back. When you incur someone's anger, your behavior causes them to become angry with you.

The word often appears with negative consequences. A company might incur expenses when launching a new product. A student who skips homework repeatedly might incur the teacher's disappointment. A country might incur damage during a natural disaster.

What makes incur different from simply “getting” or “receiving” something is that it emphasizes your role in causing the outcome. If you forget to return library books on time, you incur late fees because your forgetfulness directly caused them. The fees didn't just randomly appear; your actions brought them about.

You can incur costs, debts, penalties, injuries, wrath, or losses. The word carries a sense of consequence: something has happened because of choices or circumstances, and now you must deal with the result. When someone warns “you'll incur a penalty,” they're saying your action will trigger a specific negative outcome that you'll then have to face.