Word: emboss Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English embosen, embose, enbose (“of game: to become exhausted from hunting”), possibly from em- (a variant of en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’)) + Old French bos, bois (“woodland, woods”) (modern French bois) (from Late Latin boscus, Medieval Latin boscus (“woodlands, woods”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *busk (“bush, thicket”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to appear; to be; to become; to grow”)). Doublet of imbosk (“to conceal or hide (not necessarily in a forest or wood)”). Etymology 2 sense 2 (“to make (a hunted animal) foam at the mouth”) is probably influenced by emboss (“to decorate (something) with bosses”; etymology 1, verb sense 5), likening the flecks of foam to decorative bosses. Pronunciation: /ɪmˈbɒs/, /ɛm-/, /əmˈbɔs/, /əmˈbɑs/ 1. Of a hunted animal: to take shelter in a forest or wood. Labels: intransitive, obsolete, transitive Example: So vertue giv'n for loſt, / Depreſt, and overthrovvn, as ſeem'd, / Like that ſelf-begott'n bird / In the Arabian woods emboſt, […] Example: An Elephant from one of thoſe / Tvvo mighty Armies is broke looſe, / […] / Look quickly, leſt the Sight of us / Should cauſe the ſtartled Beaſt t’imboſs. 2. To drive (a hunted animal) to exhaustion by chasing it; to exhaust; hence, to make (a hunted animal) foam at the mouth due to exhaustion from being chased. Labels: broadly, obsolete, transitive Example: Thus stode I in the frytthy forest of Galtres, / Ensowkid with sylt of the myry mose, / Where hartis belluyng, embosyd with distres, / Ran on the raunge so longe, […] Example: And if hee [a hart] ſhould runne into any of thoſe two windes, it would quickly enter his throate when he is emboſt and beginneth to be ſpent, & would drie his throat & his tong ſore, and woud altarand chafe him much with the vehement heat thereof. 3. To cause (an animal's body, a person's mouth, etc.) to be covered with foam. Labels: archaic, broadly, transitive Example: I suppose (except I be moche deceiued) thou seest me nat stare with myn eyen, or my mouthe imbosed, or the colour of my face chaunged, or any other deformitie in my persone or gesture, or that my wordes be swyfte, or my voyce louder than modestie requyreth, or that I am unstable in my gesture or motion, whiche be the sygnes and euident tokens of wrathe and impacience. Example: For, jaded now, and spent with toil, / Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, / While every gasp with sobs he drew, / The labouring stag strained full in view. 4. To cause (someone, their heart or soul, etc.) to become extremely fatigued; to exhaust. Labels: broadly, obsolete, transitive Example: But ſee, ah ſee, I ſee hovv Loue caſts off Deſire his Hound, / A fell fleet Dogge, that hunts my Heart by parſee each-vvheare found. / Svveet Cynthea rate the eger Curre, and ſo thy foe preuent, / For, loe, a farre my chaſed Heart imboſte and almoſt ſpent. Example: [W]e haue almoſt imboſt him, you ſhall ſee his fall to night; for indeede he is not for your Lordſhippes reſpect. 5. Of a person: to foam at the mouth; also (figurative), to be furious, to rage. Labels: broadly, intransitive, obsolete, transitive