[f. WRAP v. + -ING1. App. rare between the 16th and 19th cent.]
1. The action of covering with or enveloping in a wrap or wrapper. Occas. with advs., as round, up. Also fig.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 533/1. Wrappynge, or hyllynge, coopercio, involucio.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, 170. Which [arrow] he pulled out and without wrappinge of his wound called for his horse.
1611. Cotgr., Emmaillotement, a swadling, or a wrapping in swathe bands.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III. 73. A wrapping round of inconvenient considerations with an impenetrable cloud of the plainest-seeming words.
1872. March. Dufferin, Canad. Jrnl. (1891), 52. The children play in the snow…. Their nurse, Mrs. Hall, dislikes the wrapping up.
b. The action of interlacing or intertwining; the fact of being interwoven. Also fig.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, 105. By reason that the wreathing and wrappinge togither of the bowes kept them of from the bodies of the tres.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Implexus, A wrappyng of armes crosse one within an other.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., iii. (1852), 70. Yet this artful wrapping together of the one with the other, this blending of things so dissimilar, will not accomplish the object designed.
2. Something used or designed for enveloping or wrapping up; a wrap or covering. Also in fig. context.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, I. 9. My witt is ful luyte to unwralle þe wrappyinges of so wonder werkes.
1388. Wyclif, Wisd. vii. 4. Y was nurschid in wrappyngis, and in greet bisynesses.
1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 298. The same love of display is shown in the wearing of thin shoes and stockings during unsuitable weather, being a dangerous transition from the thick shoes and wrapping worn by the same persons in daily work.
1876. Encycl. Brit., V. 775/2. Broken leaf tobacco … firmly wrapped round with one or two wrappings of whole leaf tobacco.
1883. Gilmour, Among Mongols, xvii. 201. The volumes are … carefully swathed up in their yellow wrappings.
1894. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Red Coats, 78. Dolly was eagerly tearing the paper wrappings off the big box of sweeties.
fig. 1836. Arnold, in Stanley, Life (1844), II. 28. Having been enabled to receive Scripture truth in spite of the wrapping which has been put round it.
1901. F. Campbell, Love, 319. Hidebound in a wrapping of utter selfishness.
b. An article of dress used or intended for enveloping the figure; a loose covering or upper garment; a wrap, wrappage or wrapper.
1635. Rainbow, Serm., 15. The sheepe … gives us shelter enough from the cold, why should we hunt after more costly furres and wrappings?
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., iii. A gentleman in the coach who … looked very large in a quantity of wrappings.
1882. T. Coan, Life in Hawaii, 35. I … preached in wet clothes, continuing my travels and labors until night; when in dry wrappings I slept well.
1899. Rodway, Guiana Wilds, 30. No stiff wooden figure made up of corset and wrappings, but a woman of flesh and blood.
3. attrib. in sense of ‘used or designed for wrapping or covering,’ as wrapping-cloth, -silk, -wire; † wrapping boot U.S., a form of boot adapted for wrapping about the ankle and calf; wrapping-paper, a special make of strong paper for packing or wrapping up parcels.
1566. Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1866), 75. A cup of sylver for the communion with ij wrappinge clothes for yt.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Windel..., a Wrapping-cloath.
1808. Pike, Sources of the Mississippi (1810), III. App. 41. Their dress is … the wrapping boot with the jack boot, and permanent spur over it.
1787. Leeds Intelligencer, 24 April, 4/2. A Manufacturer of Glazed Press-Paper, Wrapping-Paper, and such other Kinds as are used by the Merchants and Shopkeepers in Leeds.
1828–32. Webster, Wrapping paper.
1842. Faraday, Chem. Manip. (ed. 3), 470. Strong common brown wrapping paper.
1860. Rimbault, Pianoforte, 183. Modern pianofortes have steel wire throughout, with about one octave in the bass closely lapped. The wrapping wire is of soft iron for the upper part of the octave, and of copper for the lower.
1883. Daily News, 24 April, 5/8. The four main cables are 153/4 inches in diameter…. There are 243 miles 493 feet of wrapping wire on each.
1883. W. D. Curzon, Manuf. Industries Worcs., 80. The manufacture of the heavy and coarse sorts of wrapping paper.
1890. Cent. Dict., s.v. Silk, Wrapping-silk, a fine strong floss employed in the manufacture or artificial flies.
b. In sense of ‘used or worn as a wrapper or enveloping outer garment,’ as wrapping cloak, coat, mantle, pelisse, robe. Also WRAPPING-GOWN.
1787. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 8 Nov. What was my surprise to see a large man, in an immense wrapping greatcoat, buttoned up round his chin!
1800. Lady’s Monthly Museum, Nov. V. 408. White muslin wrapping robe, with full sleeves.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxi. His dress [was] a horseman’s wrapping coat.
1824. Meyrick, Ant. Armour, II. 11. The birrus or large wrapping cloak.
1842. Borrow, Bible in Spain, x. The large wrapping man’s cloak which she wore.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 198. He came, and to the floor he cast His wrapping mantle.
c. With advs., as wrapping up department.
1883. W. D. Curzon, Manuf. Industries Worcs., 101. [In] the wrapping up department … girls are busily engaged wrapping up goods of all kinds.
