Weave v.¹

Pa. t. wove; pa. pple. woven. Forms: Inf. and pres. stem 1 wefan (2 sing. wyfst, 3 sing. wefð, wifeð, wyfð), weofan, 3–6 weve, 4–5 wewe, wef(e, 5–6 weyve, Sc. weif(f, weff, 6 weeve, wayve, wyeve, Sc. weive, weiwe, wif(f, wyf, wywe, 6–9 Sc. wyve, 6– weave. Pa. t. sing. 1 wæf, wef, 4 wof, woof, 4–5 waf, wafe, wave, 6– wove; weak forms 4 wevede, 7 weavde, 6–9 weaved. Pa. t. pl. 1 wǽfon, 4 weven, woven. Pa. pple. 1 wefen, ʓewefen, ʓiwefen, North. ʓeuoefen, 3 iweove, iweven, 4 iweve, wovun, ywoven, (i)wovyn, 5–6 Sc. weif, 6 Sc. weffin, wiffin, woifen, wowein, wolvin, 7–9 wove, 4– woven; weak forms 4–6 weved, 4 weft, woved, 5 weuyd, 7 weevd, weavd, 6–9 weaved. [A Common Teut. strong verb (not recorded in Gothic): OE. wefan, pa. t. wæf, pl. wǽfon, pa. pple. wefen, corresponds to OFris. *weva (NFris. weewen, WFris. weve, weevje), (M)LG., (M)Du. weven, OHG. weban, wepan (MHG., mod.G. weben), ON. vefa (MSw. väva, Sw. väfva, Da. væve):—OTeut. *weð- (: *wað-: *wǣð-):—Indogermanic *webh- (: *wēbh-: *ubh-), represented in Skr. ūrṇavábhi spider (lit. ‘wool-weaver’), Gr. ὑφή, ὔφος, web, ὑφαίνειν to weave. The same root occurs in web (and abb), weft, woof.

  In the 14th and 15th c. the form of the pa. pple. became assimilated to that of the pa. pples. of strong verbs with root ending in a liquid (e.g., steal, stolen), and, as in most verbs of that class, the o of the pa. pple. was extended to the pa. t. both sing. and pl. The weak inflexion has been occasionally used in all periods from the 14th c. onwards, but has never become general.]

  1.  trans. To form or fabricate (a stuff or material) by interlacing yarns or other filaments of a particular substance in a continuous web; to manufacture in a loom by crossing the threads or yarns called respectively the warp and the weft. Also with obj. the web itself, a garment made up of such a stuff or material. † To weave out: to complete the weaving of.

  † To weave in a stool: see STOOL sb. 3.

c. 900.  Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxv. (1890), 354. Hio smælo hræʓel weofaþ & wyrcaþ.

c. 1050.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 504/2. Ordiretur, wefen wæs.

c. 1200.  Virtues & Vices, 39. Al swa nan webb ne mai bien iweuen wið-uten twa beames.

c. 1290.  St. Edmund Conf., 167, in S. Eng. Leg., 436. Heo [a hair shirt] nas i-sponne ne i-weoue, ake i-broide strengus longue.

c. 1300.  Assump. Virg., 668. This ilke webbe here self woof.

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 237. Thei tawhten him a Las to breide, And weve a Pours.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 246. Scho occupiet hir craft of weuyng cloþes and ornamentes to þe auter.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 412/1. To Wefe, texere.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XIII. viii. 86. The precyus wedis, Wrocht craftely, and weif of goldin thredis Quhilum be fair Andromachais hand.

1528.  More, Dyaloge, III. x. O v b/2. Yt were as sone done to weue a new web of clothe as to sowe vppe euery hole in a net.

1530.  Palsgr., 779/1. The weyver sayeth he can nat wayve my clothe tyll he have more yarne.

1535.  Coverdale, Job vii. 6. My dayes passe ouer more spedely, then a weeuer can weeue out his webbe.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Textrina..., the place where thinges be weaued or wounden.

1539.  Bible (Great), 2 Kings xxiii. 7. Where the wemen woue hanginges for the groue.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 73 b. For all the copes and Vestementes wer but of one pece, so wouen for the purpose.

1584.  Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 13. For weavinge forescore yerdes and four of canuise, v^s.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VI. 250. He weau’d these Napkins.

1670.  Sir S. Crow, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 15. The silke … beeing ill woven will shrink and pucker.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, VII. 340. These Purple Vests were weav’d by Dardan Dames. Ibid., IX. 651. The Mantle … which I wove with Care.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XV. 139. Accept, dear youth, this monument of love, Long since, in better days, by Helen wove.

1789–96.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 541. Woollen stockings … of excellent quality are wove by the Germans, especially in Germantown.

1856.  G. Roberts, Soc. Hist. South. Eng., 376. Our lace was not wove. It had neither warp nor woof.

1872.  Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 69. The shawls and the textile furniture used in the rites of religion were frequently woven in the temples.

  b.  in figurative context.

  In many langs. the equivalent vb. is used in metaphorical expressions relating to the contriving of plots or deception: so Gr. ὑφαίνειν, L. texere, ordiri, Fr. ourdir. Cf. 1 f.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xxx. 1. Wo!… seith the Lord, that ȝee schulden do counseil, and not of me; and wefen a web [Vulg. ordiremini telam], and not bi my spirit.

1606.  Sir G. Goosecappe, V. i. in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 85. All the wiles Weeud in the loomes of greatnes, and of state.

c. 1620.  Moryson, Itin., Suppl. (1903), 191. If … each Deputy should giue in writing to the State in England a full relation of his gouernment and the State of that kingdome [Ireland], so as his successour might weaue the same webb he had begunn, and not make a nowe frame of his owne.

a. 1662.  Heylin, Cypr. Angl., 64. For much they feared that Abbot would unravel all the Web which Bancroft with such pains had weaved.

1796.  Eliza Hamilton, Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811), II. 220. The robes of the seasons, wove in the changeful looms of nature.

1808.  Scott, Marm., VI. xvii. O what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!

1842.  Lytton, Zanoni, I. i. All this helped silently to weave charmed webs over Viola’s imagination.

1893.  F. Thompson, Poems, 59. Better thou wov’st thy wool of life than thou didst weave thy woof of song.

  c.  said of the loom.

1804.  W. L. Bowles, Spir. Discov., II. 275. Thy mariners … furled th’ embroidered sails, That looms of Egypt wove.

  d.  To depict in tapestry.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 2360. She hadde I-wouyn In a stamyn large How she was brought from Athenys in a Barge. Ibid., 2364. And al the thyng that Tereus hath wrought She waf it wel & wrot the storye a-boue.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, V. v. 15. Quhairon wes weif in subtell goldin threidis King Troyus son [etc.].

a. 1683.  Oldham, Rem. (1684), 114. I have seen a handsomer Mortal carv’d in Monumental Gingerbread, and woven in Hangings at Mortlock.

  fig.  1802.  Scott, T. Rhymer, III. xvi. Their loves, their woes, the gifted bard In fairy tissue wove.

  e.  fig. To contrive, fabricate or construct (a mental product) with elaborate care. Also with out, up.

c. 1420.  Wyclif Bible, I. 71/1. Of whom the first [Isaiah] is not seyn to me to weuen prophecie, but euangelie.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1598), 351. Your wise, but very darke speeches … are wouen vp in so intricate a maner, as I know not how to proportion mine answere vnto them.

a. 1600.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VI. vi. 6. For answer whereunto Acesius weaveth out a long History of things that hapned in the persecution under Decius.

1656.  Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxxv. (1674), 44. The Author’s subtilty in weaving of his Poem.

1799.  Campbell, Pleas. Hope, I. 165. Then weave in rapid verse the deeds they tell.

1819.  W. S. Rose, Lett. N. Italy, I. 24. I had already woven a little romance for him in my imagination.

1824.  Lamb, Elia, Blakesmoor. Contemplations on the great and good … weave for us illusions.

1849.  Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, ii. Katherine had already woven out the whole romance of the stranger’s life.

1861.  Geo. Eliot, Silas M., I. i. You stole the money, and you have woven a plot to lay the sin at my door.

1862.  Spencer, First Princ., I. iii. § 21 (1875), 66. The original materials out of which all thought is woven.

1874.  M. Creighton, Hist. Ess., i. (1902), 42. The … desire for reality that made him [Dante] weave his poem around himself.

1876.  Thompson, Chron. A. de Usk, 186. The evil arts of brewing charms and weaving spells.

1885–94.  Bridges, Eros & Psyche, May, 15. Pathetic strains and passionate they wove, Urgent in ecstasies of heavenly sense.

1913.  W. K. Fleming, Mysticism Chr., 108. In his [Richard of St. Victor’s] writings, his weakness lay in his proneness, like St. Bernard, to weave endless allegories out of the Old Testament writings.

  f.  To form (e.g., a basket, a wreath) by interlacing rods or twigs, flowers, etc.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clii. (1495), 704. Stakes be pyghte in the grounde and there abowte ben wrethes wouen and wounden of thornes.

1599.  T. Cutwode, Caltha Poet. (Roxb.), cxxiv. And others very busie do begin: To weaue their litle baskets … to put their hearbs and all their flowers in.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 839. Adam the while … had wove Of choicest Flours a Garland to adorne Her Tresses.

1757.  Dyer, Fleece, I. 375. Hurdles to weave, and chearly shelters raise, Thy vacant hours require.

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, V. xiii. But, Lady, weave no wreath for me, Or weave it of the cypress-tree!

1839.  Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. Georgia (1863), 21. Among the Brobdignagian sedges … the nightshade … weaves a perfect matting of its poisonous garlands.

1839.  Emerson, Poems, The Problem, 25. Know ’st thou what wove yon woodbird’s nest Of leaves, and leathers from her breast?

1842.  Macaulay, Horatius, lxix. When the girls are weaving baskets, And the lads are shaping bows.

1902.  S. E. White, Blazed Trail, viii. With the skill of ghastly practice some of them wove a litter on which the body was placed.

  fig.  1893.  Liddon, Life Pusey, I. App. A. 451. Legend has woven a wreath round the early history of the family.

  g.  Sc. To knit. Also dial. to plait (hair).

1695.  Rec. Old. Aberd. (New Spalding Club), I. 160. Privat schooles … wherein children ar taught to sew or wyve.

1785.  Burns, Epist. to J. Lapraik, 1 April, ii. On Fasteneen we had a rockin, To ca’ the crack and weave our stockin.

1825.  Jamieson, To Weave v. a. and n. To knit, applied to stockings, &c.; pron. Wyve. Aberd.

1884.  J. C. Egerton, Sussex Folk, 132. He … used to go regularly twice a week to the house of one of his principal customers, ‘to weave his cue,’ or, in less professional language, to plait his pigtail.

  ¶ h.  In figurative use app. sometimes confusedly: To spin, twine (a cord, thread).

1426.  Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 24413. The cordeler that waf the corde Of pes, vnyte, and concorde,… Hyr name was called ‘Charyte.’

1648.  Gage, West Ind., 19. The Indians uproar had weaved for us a thred of long discourse.

1856.  Kane, Arctic Expl., II. xxv. 249. The men weave their long yarns with peals of rattling hearty laughter between.

  2.  absol. or intr. To practise weaving; to work with a loom.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., xv. (Z.), 104. Tui ancilla texit Ðin wyln wefð.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 170. Hire moder … Bad that sche scholde … lerne forto weve and spinne.

c. 1450.  Capgrave, St. Gilbert, I. 129. A conuerse of þat same ordre … sat stille in his craft weuyng.

1585.  E. D., Prayse of Nothing, A ij b. For equity would not … that Arachne weaue in the frames of Minerua.

1608.  Shaks., Per., IV. vi. 194. I can sing, weaue, sow, and dance, with other vertues.

1781.  Cowper, Truth, 317. Yon cottager who weaves at her own door, Pillow and bobbins all her little store.

1818.  Min. Evid. Committee Ribbon Weavers, 112. My father is a silk weaver; it is about twenty years since I first began to weave.

1828.  Carlyle, Heyne, Ess. 1840, II. 41. The poor cottage, where his father had weaved.

1917.  T. R. Glover, From Pericles to Philip, i. 17. [In Egypt] Women go to market and men stay at home and weave, and they weave down where others weave up.

  fig.  1622.  Fletcher, Sp. Curate, II. i. They that pretend to wonders must weave cunningly.

  3.  trans. Of a spider, insect: To spin (a web, a cocoon). Also absol.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 468. Ðe spinnere … werpeð ðus hire web and weueð on hire wise.

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. lix. 5. The webbis of an attercop thei wouen [v.r. weueden].

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xi. (Bodl. MS.). Þe female leieþ egges and þereof comeþ smal spiþeres and þe modre setteþ hem to weue as sone as þei beþ yheiȝt.

1426.  Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 19269. As an yreyne wewyth a calle, To make fflyes there-in to ffalle.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VII., 30. She … beganne to devyse & spynne a new webbe, lyke a spyder that dayly weveth when hys calle is torne.

1604.  Drayton, Owle, E 2 b. The spyders woue their webbs euen in his wings.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., III. 111. Silke-wormes … infold themselues in a piece of silk they weaue of an ouall forme and yellow color.

1784.  Cowper, Tiroc., 595. While ev’ry worm industriously weaves And winds his web about the rivell’d leaves.

  fig.  1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 340. My Brayne, more busie then the laboring Spider, Weaues tedious Snares to trap mine Enemies.

1663.  Butler, Hud., I. i. 159. He … Could twist as tough a Rope of Sand, And weave fine Cobwebs, fit for Skull That’s empty when the Moon is full.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., l. Men the flies of latter spring, That lay their eggs, and sting and sing And weave their petty cells and die.

  4.  To form a texture with (threads, filaments, strips of some material); to interlace or intertwine so as to form a fabric.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Licia, be thredes, whiche sylke women do weaue in lyncelles or stooles.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., II. iv. 46. The Spinsters and the Knitters in the Sun, And the free maides that weaue their thred with bones. Ibid. (1608), Per., IV. Gower 21. When they weaude the sleded silke, With fingers long, small, white as milke.

1638.  H. Peacham, Valley of Varietie, 131. There remains fine hairie threds, like unto Flax, which are woven into cloth.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., X. 103. This while I sung, my Sorrows I deceiv’d, And bending Osiers into Baskets weav’d.

1789.  Massachusetts Spy, 27 Aug., 3/2. A young lady of Milton lately spun 70 skeins of thread out of a pound of Cotton—which another young lady wove.

1808.  Forsyth, Beauties Scot., V. 272. To send cotton yarn from the mills … into the remote glens of the Highlands, for the purpose of being weaved.

1877–80.  Gt. Industr. Gt. Brit., III. 212. Milligan … wove-in the silk white, and dyed the flowers their natural colour in the piece.

a. 1908.  C. Bigg, Orig. Christianity, xxxv. (1909), 459. The art of weaving flax had been introduced from Babylon.

  b.  To entwine or wreathe together.

1578.  [see INTERTEX v.].

1617.  Moryson, Itin., III. 167. Citizens daughters … weare nothing vpon their heads but their haire wouen with laces, and so gathered on the fore-part of the head.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., ix. 57. The Grottoes cool, with shady Poplars crown’d, And creeping Vines on Arbours weav’d around.

1727.  [Dorrington], Philip Quarll (1816), 42. He bent the branches … and weaved them across one another.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lxxviii. Again at Christmas did we weave The holly round the Christmas hearth.

  c.  fig. To intermingle or unite closely or intimately as if by weaving; to work up into an elaborate and connected whole. Also with in.

1545.  Gardiner, in Abp. Parker, Corr. (Parker Soc.), 27. In the tragedy untruth is so maliciously weaved with truth [etc.].

1605.  Shaks., Lear, II. i. 17. This weaves it selfe perforce into my businesse.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett. to Lady Kilconquhair, 8 Aug. Is not this hell and heaven woven thorow other?

1638.  Sir T. Herbert (title), Some Yeares Travels … Describing especially the two famous Empires, the Persian, and great Mogull: weaved with the History of these later Times.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., I. ii. § 25. Can they receive and assent to adventitious Notions, and be ignorant of those, which are supposed woven into the very Principles of their Being…?

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 40, ¶ 2. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of Æneas and Hudibras into one Poem. Ibid. (a. 1719), Evid. Chr. Relig., v. (1733), 42. When religion was woven into the civil government, and flourished under the protection of the Emperors.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. cxii. And for these words, thus woven into song, It may be that they are a harmless wile.

1862.  J. Martineau, Ess. (1866), I. 203. Science weaves phenomena into unity.

1875.  Ouseley, Mus. Form, ix. 49. Put the melody in the bass, or in an inner part, and weave in a new melody with it in the upper part.

c. 1904.  Bridges, Voltaire, Poems (1912), 381. Grave Dante weaving well His dark-eyed thought into a song divine.

  d.  intr. for refl. To become woven or interwoven. Also fig. rare.

1613–6.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. ii. 30. The amorous Vine which in the Elme still weaues.

1849.  Lytton, K. Arthur, II. lxxi. Tears weave with smiles to form the bridge to heaven!

  e.  intr. With quasi-passive sense: To admit of being woven.

1842.  R. Oastler, Fleet Papers, II. 26. It will not spin into good yarn, nor weave into wearable cloths.

  † f.  intr. To weave out: to become unwoven. nonce-use (suggested by the context). Obs.

1641.  Milton, Reform., II. 78. The government of Episcopacy, is now so weav’d into the common Law: In Gods name let it weave out againe.

  5.  trans. To enmesh or entangle, to wrap up, as in a net, etc. In quots. fig.

1620.  [? G. Brydges], Horæ Subs., 394. And thus being wouen in their [Roman] nets, they be in a manner destitute of all possibility of recouery.

1869.  Lowell, Study Wind., Condescension in Foreigners (1871), 43. The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts.

  6.  To cause to move in a devious course; to direct (one’s steps) in a devious or intricate course, as in dancing.

1650.  R. Heath, Clarastella, 11.

1839.  De Quincey, Mem. Grasmere, Wks. 1890, XIII. 132. Sarah was going about the crowd, and weaving her person in and out.

1893.  Kate D. Wiggin, Cathedral Courtship, 136. To weave that donkey and that Bath ‘cheer’ through the narrow streets … is a task for a Jehu.

  b.  To go through the intricate movements of (a dance)

1792.  Rogers, Pleas. Mem., II. 36. Weave the light dance and swell the choral song.

1862.  Neale, Hymns East. Ch., 46. They … to that eternal Pascha Wove the dance and raised the strain.

  Hence Weaved ppl. a. = WOVEN ppl. a. Also weaved-up.

1552.  Huloet, Weued, textus.

1561.  B. Googe, trans. Palingenius’ Zodiac, VI. R vj. Lyke as the flye that smallest is in weued Cobweb hye.

1593.  Shaks., Rich. II., IV. i. 229 (Qo. 1608). And must I rauell out My weaud vp Folly?