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Embrace
Definitions
- 1 An act of putting arms around someone and bringing the person close to the chest; a hug.
"[E]yes, looke your laſt, / Armes take your laſt embrace: and lips, O you / The doores of breath, ſeale with a righteous kiſſe / A dateleſſe bargain to ingroſſing death: […]"
- 2 a close affectionate and protective acceptance wordnet
- 3 An enclosure partially or fully surrounding someone or something. figuratively
"When he reached the ridge the outlying fog crept across the summit, caught him in its embrace, and wrapped him from her gaze."
- 4 the act of clasping another person in the arms (as in greeting or affection) wordnet
- 5 Full acceptance (of something). figuratively
"And it was the white blood which sent him to the minister, which rising in him for the last and final time, sent him against all reason and all reality, into the embrace of a chimera, a blind faith in something read in a printed Book."
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- 6 the state of taking in or encircling wordnet
- 7 An act of enfolding or including. figuratively
"In India men are enjoined to be fully awake to the fact that they are in the closest relation to things around them, body and soul, and that they are to hail the morning sun, the flowing water, the fruitful earth, as the manifestation of the same living truth which holds them in its embrace."
- 1 To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug. transitive
"There was no faynting faith in that Dogge, which when his Master by a mischaunce in hunting stumbled and fell toppling downe a deepe dytche beyng vnable to recouer of himselfe, the Dogge signifying his masters mishappe, reskue came, and he was hayled up by a rope, whom the Dogge seeying almost drawne up to the edge of the dytche, cheerefully saluted, leaping and skipping vpon his master as though he would haue imbraced hym, beying glad of his presence, whose longer absence he was lothe to lacke."
- 2 take up the cause, ideology, practice, method, of someone and use it as one's own wordnet
- 3 To seize (something) eagerly or with alacrity; to accept or take up with cordiality; to welcome. figuratively, transitive
"I wholeheartedly embrace the new legislation."
- 4 hold (someone) tightly in your arms, usually with fondness wordnet
- 5 To submit to; to undergo. figuratively, transitive
"What I haue done my ſafety vrg'd me to: / And I embrace this fortune patiently, / Since not to be auoided it fals on me."
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- 6 include in scope; include as part of something broader; have as one's sphere or territory wordnet
- 7 To encircle; to enclose, to encompass. also, figuratively, transitive
"Low at his foot a ſpacious Plain is plac't, / Between the Mountain and the Stream embrac't: / Which ſhade and ſhelter from the Hill derives, / While the kind River Wealth and Beauty gives; […]"
- 8 To enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.); to encompass. figuratively, transitive
"Natural philosophy embraces many sciences."
- 9 To fasten on, as armour. obsolete, rare, transitive
"VVho ſeeing him from far ſo fierce to pricke, / His warlike armes about him gan embrace, / And in the reſt his ready ſpeare did ſticke; […]"
- 10 To accept (someone) as a friend; to accept (someone's) help gladly. figuratively, obsolete, transitive
"He bears himſelfe more proudlier, / Euen to my perſon, then I thought he would / When firſt I did embrace him."
- 11 To attempt to influence (a court, jury, etc.) corruptly; to practise embracery. figuratively, obsolete, transitive
"The puniſhment for the perſon embracing is by fine and impriſonment; and, for the juror ſo embraced, if it be by taking money, the puniſhment is (by divers ſtatutes of the reign of Edward III) perpetual infamy, impriſonment for a year, and forfeiture of the tenfold value."
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English embracen (“to clasp in one's arms, embrace; to reach out eagerly for, welcome; to enfold, entwine; to ensnare, entangle; to twist, wrap around; to gird, put on; to lace; to be in or put into bonds; to put a shield on the arm; to grasp (a shield or spear); to acquire, take hold of; to receive; to undertake; to affect, influence; to incite; to unlawfully influence a jury; to surround; to conceal, cover; to shelter; to protect; to comfort; to comprehend, understand”) [and other forms], from Old French embracer, embracier (“to kiss”) (modern French embrasser (“to kiss; (dated) to embrace, hug”)), from Late Latin *imbracchiāre, from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’)) + bracchium (“arm”). The English word is analysable as em- + brace. The noun is derived from the verb.
The verb is derived from Middle English embracen (“to clasp in one's arms, embrace; to reach out eagerly for, welcome; to enfold, entwine; to ensnare, entangle; to twist, wrap around; to gird, put on; to lace; to be in or put into bonds; to put a shield on the arm; to grasp (a shield or spear); to acquire, take hold of; to receive; to undertake; to affect, influence; to incite; to unlawfully influence a jury; to surround; to conceal, cover; to shelter; to protect; to comfort; to comprehend, understand”) [and other forms], from Old French embracer, embracier (“to kiss”) (modern French embrasser (“to kiss; (dated) to embrace, hug”)), from Late Latin *imbracchiāre, from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’)) + bracchium (“arm”). The English word is analysable as em- + brace. The noun is derived from the verb.
See also for "embrace"
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