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wreathe. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
wreathe, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
wreathe in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
wreathe you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English wrethen (“to twist”), partly a back-formation of Middle English wrethen, writhen ("wreathed, twisted"; > modern English wreathen), past participle of wrythen (“to writhe”); and partly from Middle English wrethe (“wreath”).
Pronunciation
Verb
wreathe (third-person singular simple present wreathes, present participle wreathing, simple past and past participle wreathed)
- (transitive) To twist, curl or entwine something into a shape similar to a wreath.
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :You do not love Maria; Longaville / Did never sonnet for her sake compile, / Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart / His loving bosom to keep down his heart.
1681, Andrew Marvell, The Fair Singer, lines 10–12:But how should I avoid to be her slave, / Whose subtle art invisibly can wreathe / My fetters of the very air I breathe?
1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: for Taylor and Hessey, , →OCLC, page 3, lines 6-11:Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing / A flowery band to bind us to the earth, / Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth / Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, / Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways / Made for our searching: […]
- (transitive) To form a wreathlike shape around something.
1942, Emily Carr, “The Orange Lily”, in The Book of Small:The flowers crackled at Anne’s touch. “Enough to wreathe the winter’s dead,” she said with a happy little sigh and, taking a pink bud from the pile, twined it in the lace of her black cap.
- (intransitive) To curl, writhe or spiral in the form of a wreath.
1833, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A True Dream, New York: Macmillan, published 1914:I unsealed the vial mystical, / I outpoured the liquid thing, / And while the smoke came wreathing out, / I stood unshuddering.
- (obsolete) To turn violently aside or around; to wrench.
Translations
twist into a shape similar to a wreath
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Anagrams