wreathe
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English wrethen (“to twist”), partly:
* from wrethen (“twisted, wreathed”) (whence modern English wreathen (“(obsolete) made into a wreath; twisted”, adjective)), the past participle of writhen, wrythen (“to twist into a braid, coil, or wreath; to twist out of position or shape, deform; to twist together, intertwine; to twist about, writhe; to bend; to swathe, wrap; etc.”), from Old English wrīþan (“to twist; to bind; to wrap”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrīþan (“to twist; to weave”), from Proto-Germanic *wrīþaną (“to twist; to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (“to twist”); and
* from wreth, wrethe (“coiled or rounded shape; decorative garland, wreath; chaplet, crown; ring”, noun), from Old English wrǣd, wrǣþ, wriþa (“bandage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrīþan (“to twist; to weave”) (see further above).
Inflected forms:
form: wreathes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wreathing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
first-person
past
singular
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: wreathest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: wreathedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: wreathes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: wreatheth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
singular
third-person
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
plural
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
subjunctive
form: wreathe
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: wreathing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: wreathed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: wreath'd
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
form: wreath
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: [S]he ſtarts like one that ſpies an adder, / VVreath'd vp in fatall folds iuſt in his vvay, / The feare vvhereof doth make him ſhake, & ſhudder, […]
[T]he Beards of vvilde Oates, and thoſe of divers other vvilde Plants; […] almoſt continually vvreath and unvvreath themſelves according to, even, the light variations of the temperature of the ambient Air.
The Guts are oblong, round, hollovv bodies variouſly vvreathed about, joyning vvith the Pylorus and reaching to the Fundament; ſerving to receive the Chylus and the Excrements of the firſt Concoction.
[W]e ſpread our Sails, / And left that Bay, […] vvhile Troy, / Or vvhat vvas Troy, yet vvreathing Smoak to Heaven, / And Ida’s vvoody Top, receding, ſunk / Beneath the trembling Main: […]
There at the foot of yonder nodding beech / That vvreathes its old fantaſtic roots ſo high, / His liſtleſs length at noontide vvou'd he ſtretch, / And pore upon the brook that babbles by.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: [W]ith Laurels vvreath your poſts, / And ſtrovv vvith Flovv'rs the Pavement; […]
Eſcap'd the flaſhing of the noontide hours / VVith one freſh garland of Pierian flovvers / (Ere from thy zephyr-haunted brink I turn) / My languid hand ſhall vvreath thy moſſy urn.
So, entering London about sunrise, doors and windows were duly wreathed with garlands; and every village in the suburbs had its May-pole, which stood in its place all the year.
Old Nico wreathed the tomb of maiden Melitê. Hades, was this your judgment righteous?
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: Death's Harbingers, lye latent in the Draught: / And in the Flovv'rs that vvreath the ſparkling Bovvl, / Fell Adders hiſs, and poys'nous Serpents roll.
O'er Diſappointment's vvintry deſart fling / Each flovver, that vvreath'd the devvy locks of Spring, / VVhen bluſhing, like a bride, from Hope's trim bovver / She leapt, avvaken'd by the pattering ſhovver.
"Come see my everlasting flowers, Small—my flowers that never die." […] 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.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: wreathed in mystery
At the funeral, a circle of comrades wreathed the grave of the honoured deceased.
A rayne of teares, a clowde of darke diſdaine / Haue done the weried coardes great hinderance, / Wrethed with errour, and with ignorance. / The ſtarres be hidde, that leade me to this payne.
The bundells of roddes vvhich the ſergeaunts caried before them, vvere vvreathed about vvith lavvrell braunches for the victories they had both atchieued: […]
Braine, I for this / VVill vvreathe thee in a glorious arch of gold, ſtuck full of Indian gemmes.
From India and the golden Cherſoneſs, / And utmoſt Indian Iſle Taprobane, / Dusk faces vvith vvhite ſilken Turbants vvreath'd: […]
Tho' wit may flash from fluent lips, and mirth distract the breast, / Through midnight hours that yield no more their former hope of rest; / 'Tis but as ivy-leaves around the ruin'd turret wreath, / All green and wildly fresh without, but worn and grey beneath.
When, in the darkness over me, / The fourhanded mole shall scrape, / Plant thou no dusky cypresstree, / Nor wreathe thy cap with doleful crape, / But pledge me in the flowing grape.
Perhaps she shuddered, while the world's / Cold hand her brow was wreathing: / But never wronged that mystic breath / Which breathed in all her breathing; […]
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
reflexive
transitive
examples: He had a kercher wreathed aboute his heed: […]
[A]bout his necke / A greene and guilded ſnake had vvreath'd it ſelfe, […]
Minutius tells vs here, my Lord, / That, a nevv Head being ſet vpon your Statue. / A Rope is ſince found vvreath'd about it; […]
And brighter blooms than those thou wreathest / Round thy wild chords, some lyres have crowned; / But none may boast, 'mid the tuneful throng, / A lovelier garland, or purer song!
Yes, when in Eden's bowers our parents [Adam and Eve] fell, / Thou [Azrael] wreathedst round their hearts thy dead'ning spell, / Bidding the seeds of death luxuriate there, / To mar those forms, once beautiful and fair!
The article used is called a selvagee. […] It is a slender, tapering, unstranded piece of rope; prepared with much solicitude; peculiarly flexible; and wreathes and serpentines round the cable and messenger like an elegantly-modeled garter-snake round the twisted stalks of a vine.
[R]ound / The warrior's puissant shoulders Pallas flung / Her fringed ægis, and around his head / The glorious goddess wreath'd a golden cloud, / And from it lighted an all-shining flame.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: [Y]ou haue learn'd (like Sir Protheus) to vvreath your Armes like a Male-content: […]
You do not loue Maria? Longauile, / Did neuer Sonnet for her ſake compile, / Nor neuer lay his vvreathed arms athvvart / His louing boſome, to keepe dovvne his hart.
Enter Andrugio and Antonio vvreathed together, […]
The yoke of my tranſgreſſions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come vp vpon my necke: he hath made my ſtrength to fall, the Lord hath deliuered me into their hands, from vvhom I am not able to riſe vp.
[I]n ſuch baſe, noyſom Hearts, you ſhall ever ſee Pride and Ingratitude indiviſibly vvreathed, and tvviſted together.
Thou vvreatheſt ſerpents as thou vvreatheſt flovvers, / Thou ſilenceſt the vvinds vvithout a vvord, […]
For in the air do I behold indeed / An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight:— […]
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
archaic
figuratively
transitive
examples: On th' other ſide, Adam, ſoon as he heard / The fatal Treſpaſs don by Eve, amaz'd, / Aſtonied ſtood and Blank, vvhile horror chill / Ran through his veins, and all his joynts relax'd; / From his ſlack hand the Garland vvreath'd for Eve / Dovvn drop'd, and all the faded Roſes ſhed: […]
[Y]our friend Piers / Wreath'd me this cowslip garland for my head— […]
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: […]
[M]an's invention could not reach without frank imitation. His next step was to gather the flowers themselves, and wreathe them in his capitals [of columns].
I seem no longer like a lonely man / In the king's garden, gathering here and there / From each fair plant the blossom choicest-grown / To wreathe a crown not only for the king / But in due time for every Mussulmân, / Brahmin, and Buddhist, Christian, and Parsee, / Thro' all the warring world of Hindustan.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: Yf ther be twaine, one may defend the tother ouer throwne. / The single twyned cordes may no suche stresse indure / As cables brayded thre fould may, together wrethed swer [i.e., sure].
Sale) or Salovv a kind of vvoodde like VVyllovv, fit to vvreath and bynde in leapes to catch fiſh vvithall.
But hovv ſhould I avoid to be her ſlave, / VVhoſe ſubtle art inviſibly can vvreath / My fetters of the very air I breathe?
Every VVarrior's manly neck / Chains of regal honour deck, / VVreath'd in many a golden link: […]
This cap to my cousin I owe; / She gave it, and gave me beside, / Wreath'd into an elegant bow, / The ribbon with which it is tied.
Thou [poesy] wreathedst my first hours in a rosy chain, / Rocking the cradle of my infancy.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
also
figuratively
obsolete
transitive
examples: [T]he French troops vvere to be employed as inſtruments for ſubduing the Scots, and vvreathing the yoke about their necks.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
examples: [W]hen the Hoppe groweth high it muſt haue a pole, when the Iuie ſpreadeth, it cleaueth to the flint, when the Vine riſeth, it wreatheth about yͤ Elme, […]
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
examples: I unsealed the vial mystical, / I outpoured the liquid thing, / And while the smoke came wreathing out, / I stood unshuddering.
Real fire of pine-wood in some rocky place, / Wreathing around my body greedily, / A dreadful beacon o'er the leaden sea.
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
rare
gloss: Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
also
figuratively
intransitive
obsolete
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Contempt kept Bertram's anger down, / And wreathed to savage smile his frown.
[…] Gilbert of Ghent, […] walked up to the pair, his weather-beaten countenance wreathed into what were meant for paternal smiles.
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: reflexive
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
figuratively
reflexive
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: If an huge ſcaly Salmon chance to ſpy / The vvanton Errors of the ſvvimming Fly, / […] / Soon in ſmart Pains he feels the dire Miſtake, / Laſhes the VVaves, and beats the foamy Lake, / […] / And novv again, impatient of the VVound, / He rolls and vvreathes his ſhining Body round; […]
Warm corpses fall upon the clay cold dead; / And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear.— […]
Margaret wreathed her throat in a scornful curve.
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: The ſame day in the afternoone we ſawe in the element, a cloud with a long tayle, like vnto the tayle of a ſerpent, which cloud is called in Italian Cion, the tayle of this cloud did hang as it were into the ſea: […] The Marriners reported to vs that it had this propertie, that if it ſhould happen to haue lighted on any part of the ſhippe, that it would rent and wreth ſayles, maſt, ſhroudes and ſhippe and all in manner like a wyth: on the land, trees, houſes, or whatſoeuer elſe it lighteth on, it would rent and wreth.
The bitings of lyons and ſuch like beaſtes are ſo dangerous, in regard of their ſtrength and fierceneſſe, for they doe not onely bite, but alſo vvreath and teare the vvounds vvhich they make vvith their teeth, or nailes: […]
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [T]o wreſt the will of man, or to wreath his hearte to our humours, it is not in the compaſſe of Arte, but in the power of the moſt higheſt.
They killed a man vvhich vvas a firſt-borne, vvreathing his head from his bodie, and embalming the ſame vvith ſalt and ſpices: & then vvrote vpon a plate of gold the name of an vncleane ſpirit, and putting the ſame vnder the head, ſet it vpon a vvall, & burned Candles before it and vvorſhipped the ſame.
And forasmuch as by their frequent passing under the Roller, they [blankets for printing] are squezed together and become stubburne, and churlish: you shall doe well to spread and extend them at night; and the morning (ere you employ them) to wreath, rub, slap and smooth them till you have rendred them very soft and gentle: […]
This Plate […] muſt be vvrenched or vvreithed, ſo that the Plain thereof muſt ſtand parallel to the Plain of the Index-Frame, and by the vvreithing of it[…], as aforeſaid, there is room left for the Screvv to lye obliquely, vvithout the Screvvs touching the aforeſaid Plate, or grating againſt it.
For this your Locks in Paper Durance bound, / For this vvith tort'ring Irons vvreath'd around?
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
rare
transitive
examples: […] Thoſe of fairer front, / But equal inhumanity, in courts, / And ſlippery pomp delight, in dark cabals; / VVreathe the deep bovv, diffuſe the lying ſmile, / And tread the vveary labyrinth of ſtate.
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to vigorous movement.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: [F]or griefe his hart did grate, / And from ſo heauie ſight his head did vvreath, / Accuſing fortune, and too cruell fate, / VVhich plonged had faire Lady in ſo vvretched ſtate.
But Aiax a farre greater ſtone, lift vp, and (vvreathing round, / VVith all his bodie layd to it) he ſent it forth to vvound, / And gaue vnmeaſur'd force to it; the round ſtone broke vvithin / His rundled target: […]
Beauty is never so beautiful as when, if I teaze it, it wreathes back on me with spirit.
[I]n the midst of the court-yard stood the Fairy Bear; […] his long snake neck and cruel visage wreathing about in search of prey.
Derived words: enwreathe
inwreathe
interwreathe
unwreathe
unwreathed
wreathed
wreather
wreathewort
wreathing
Translations: