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embrace

verb
/ɛmˈbɹes/

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.

  1. derived from *imbracchiāre✻
  2. derived from embracer
  3. inherited from 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”

Definitions

  1. To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection

    To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.

    • I will imbrace him with a ſouldiour's arme, / That he ſhall ſhrinke vnder my curteſie, […]
    • And after the vprore was ceaſed, Paul called vnto him the diſciples, and imbraced them, & departed, for to go into Macedonia.

  2. To seize (something) eagerly or with alacrity

    To seize (something) eagerly or with alacrity; to accept or take up with cordiality; to welcome.

    • I wholeheartedly embrace the new legislation.
    • The louer refused of his loue imbraceth death. [poem title]
    • I take it your owne buſineſſe cals on you, / And you embrace the occaſion to depart.

  3. To submit to

    To submit to; to undergo.

    • 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.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. To encircle

      To encircle; to enclose, to encompass.

      • 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; […]

    2. To enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.)

      To enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.); to encompass.

      • Natural philosophy embraces many sciences.
      • Not that my ſong, in ſuch a ſcanty ſpace, / So large a Subject fully can embrace: […]
      • The Man from Mars sat down again when Jill left. He did not pick up the picture book they had given him but simply waited in a fashion which may be described as "patient" only because human language does not embrace Martian attitudes.

    3. To fasten on, as armour.

      • 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; […]

    4. To accept (someone) as a friend

      To accept (someone) as a friend; to accept (someone's) help gladly.

      • He bears himſelfe more proudlier, / Euen to my perſon, then I thought he would / When firſt I did embrace him.

    5. To attempt to influence (a court, jury, etc.) corruptly

      To attempt to influence (a court, jury, etc.) corruptly; to practise embracery.

    6. An act of putting arms around someone and bringing the person close to the chest

      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: […]
      • That Gentleman I mean to make the model of my Fortunes, and in his chaſt imbraces keep alive the memory of my loſt lovely Loveleſe: he is ſomewhat like him too.
      • [A] long and affectionate embrace supplied the place of language in bidding each other adieu; […]

    7. An enclosure partially or fully surrounding someone or something.

      • When he reached the ridge the outlying fog crept across the summit, caught him in its embrace, and wrapped him from her gaze.
      • We were now within the embrace of a broad bay flanked on either hand by a low promontory.

    8. Full acceptance (of something).

      • 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.

    9. An act of enfolding or including.

The neighborhood

Derived

all-embracing, embraceability, embraceable, embrace, extend and extinguish, embracement, embraceor, embracer, embracery, embrace the penguin, embrace the suck, embracingly, embracive, overembrace, reembrace, re-embrace, unembraceable, unembraced, unembracing, half-embrace, deadly embrace, marital embrace

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at embrace. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01embrace02arms03escutcheon04charge05engage06interact07acts08clipping09clip

A definitional loop anchored at embrace. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at embrace

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA