ppl. a. and pa. pple. Also 7–8 wrapt. [f. WRAP v. + -ED1.]
I. 1. Concealed, covered, hidden.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., X. iv. (Bodl. MS.). Fuyre … beschyneþ alle þinges wiþ his … wrapped [L. circumvelatus] briȝtenes.
1601. Chester, Love’s Mart., etc. (1878), 125. Ile be partener Of thy harts wrapped sorrow more hereafter.
2. With up: a. Involved, complicated; couched in complex, covert or vague terms.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1853), II. 304. I have analyzed these declarations, because being somewhat wrapped up in their expressions, their full import might escape, on a transient reading.
1896. Daily News, 13 Jan., 7/1. it is the way of the ‘Temps’ to speak in wrapped-up language, but throughout … the crisis its utterances have been even more than usually enigmatical. Ibid. (1898), 14 Nov., 5/2. The beauty of the Fashoda Blue Book was the absence … of wrapped up phrases.
b. Muffled up in, covered up with, a wrap or enveloping garment.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., ii. The shining figure of a wrapped-up man.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 8 June, 1/3. The wrapped-up figure on a pedestal.
c. Marked or characterized by absorbed attention. (Cf. 5.)
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 Nov., 4/1. His incapacity to hear … gives him a more wrapped up air than the brother.
1893. Daily News, 27 June, 6/3. Faces wore a ‘wrapped up’ expression, and voices were hard and tuneless.
3. Drawn together, fashioned, made or constructed by wrapping or twining.
1820. Keats, Cap & Bells, xxv. With hasty steps, wrapp’d cloak, and solemn looks … [he] upon his errand sallies.
1837. Kirkbride, Northern Angler, 2. The wrapt hackle flies are generally most esteemed in this part of the country.
1907. C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, vi. 109. The first [woven basketry] embraces by far the greater number of basket forms, and includes all the more familiar kinds, such as wicker-work, wrapped-work, twilled-work, checker-work, and twined-work.
II. In predicative use. 4. Deeply interested, centered or absorbed, in a person or thing.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 34 b. Benedict the .xiii. … was wrapped in his owne folishe and fantastical opinion.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 599. Him that is wrapped in the businesse of this world.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. cxv. My daughter!… I see thee not, I hear thee not, but none Can be so wrapt in thee.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxv. Whether Mr. Dombey, wrapped in his own greatness, was at all aware of this or no.
b. Freq. with up. † Also const. with (= in).
In very frequent use from c. 1820.
(a) 1699. Boyer, Fr. Dict., II. I am so wrapt up with him, je l’aime si éperdûment.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1705), 142. How much soever some People may be Rapt up with their Sal Volatile.
1784. P. Wright, New Bk. Martyrs, 794/2. King James was … so wrapt up with a conceit, that he had now conquered the whole nation.
(b) 1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 139, ¶ 5. Being wrapped up in the safety of my old age.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 105, ¶ 6. The State-Pedant is wrapt up in News.
1776. Foote, Bankrupt, I. 3. His whole soul is wrapt up in Miss Lydia.
1784. P. Wright, New Bk. Martyrs, 805/1. I want words to express it, he was like one wrapped up in heaven.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1828), XVI. iii. Before you are yet sufficiently wrapped up in the study.
1851. Brimley, Ess., Wordsw., 166. His heart was wrapped up in his wife and sister.
1880. J. Payn, Confid. Agent, I. 31. I like a man to be wrapped up in his own calling.
c. Wrapped (up) in, entirely associated or bound up with; quite dependent on; involved in.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, V. 131. O then, first for your own illustrious sake, And next, for Us wrapp’d up in you, beware Of his Designs in time.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 123, ¶ 4. His young Wife (in whom all his Happiness was wrapt up) died.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 157. He was the only child…, and … the lives of his parents were wrapt up in him.
1847. G. P. R. James, Convict, I. 108. I put mine [sc. happiness] under your guardianship also, for mine is wrapped up in yours.
1859. Rose Piddington, Last of Cavaliers, II. xxv. 69. My mother’s whole life is wrapped in him.
1892. J. Tait, Mind in Matter (ed. 3), 167. Wrapped up in the mysterious nature of Self-existence, is the equally mysterious power of communicating existence.
5. Absorbed or engrossed in thought, contemplation, etc. Also in earlier use with up.
Perhaps partly suggested by RAPT pa. pple. 4.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, V. iii. 128. I am wrap’d in dismall thinkings.
1634. Milton, Comus, 516. I … began Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy To meditate my rural minstrelsie.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. He is always … wrapped up in cogitation.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic., xiii. He seemed to be wrapped up in profound contemplation.
1771. Beattie, Minstrel, I. xix. 1. Where the stripling, wrapt in wonder, roves.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. i. ¶ 2. I found … Don Cæsar just as much wrapped up … in the contemplation of the happy couple.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, ii. Some … were resting … with their eyes closed, as if wrapt in prayer or meditation.
1894. Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone, II. 162. The girl stood wrapped in delight.
Hence † Wrappedly adv., intricately. Obs.–0
1589. Rider, Bibl. Scholast., 1685. Wrappedly, contorte.
1647. Hexham, I. s.v.
