[f. WRAP v. + -AGE.]
I. 1. That which wraps, enfolds or covers; a wrap or outer covering; a wrapper of a parcel, packet, or the like.
In freq. use, esp. fig., from c. 1860.
fig. 1827. Carlyle, Ess., Richter (1840), I. 15. Every work, be it fiction or serious treatise, is embaled in some fantastic wrappage, some mad narrative accounting for its appearance.
1842. Sara Coleridge, in Coleridge, Aids Refl. (1843), II. 445. To consider the words of Scripture as mere wrappages for some more definite revelation out of Scripture.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. iii. Not till … he had unwinded from him the wrappages of it [ante the conscious life ecclesiastical], could he become clear about himself.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. II. iii. 68. All these things, dress, fortune, etc. are mere wrappages compared with the substantial ground of a man’s character.
1881. A. C. Bradley, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 36. The words of the Prometheus, however insignificant their historical wrappage may have seemed to him.
lit. 1846–8. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. vi. ad fin. To-morrow this sheet … shall be the wrappage to a bar of soap.
1871. W. Collins, Marq. & Merchant, I. 232. No possible wrappages can keep that poison from operating.
1886. D. C. Murray, First Person Sing., xxii. The knots were conquered, the paper wrappages removed.
b. Without article. Material used for covering or enveloping; wrapping material. Also fig.
a. 1876. M. Collins, Th. in Garden (1880), I. 187. Odd things are met with in the papers used by shopkeepers for wrappage.
1881. E. Dowden, in Academy, 12 Feb., 118. Nothing should be lost, except what is unvital, mere wrappage and encumbrance of history.
2. A loose garment for enveloping the person; a wrapper. Also in fig. context.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. i. The vestural Tissue … which Man’s Soul wears as its outmost wrappage and overall. Ibid. (1837), Fr. Rev., II. III. iv. Figure under what thousand-fold wrappages and cloaks of darkness Royalty, meditating these things, must involve itself.
1863. D. Wilson, in Edin. New Phil. Jrnl., XVIII. 79. The constant laying of the infant to rest on its side,… along with the fashion of cap, hat, or wrappage, may [etc.].
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., III. 446. Another wrappage, namely one thick veil That hid her, matron-wise, from head to foot.
3. Something wrapped up; a package, parcel.
1883. Daily Tel., 19 Nov., 5/3. This paper wrappage was taken on by train to Stalybridge.
II. 4. The action of wrapping. rare–0.
1846. Worcester (citing Ec. Rev.). [Hence in later Dicts.]
