[f. as prec. + -ING1.]
1. The action of twisting or contorting; the fact of writhing; an instance of this.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Torsement, a wreathing.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xiii. 223. Leauing their mouings free; which yet … shall come to the end which God hath listed to appoint vnto them, whatsoeuer windings and wreathings they seeme to themselues to make.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 34. By the wreathing of their bodies … they seek to avoid the pursuer.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. v. 8. Touching the Contorsion or Wreathing of the recurrent Nerve.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 130. The Earth-Worm … by a sort of wreathing … takes hold of the Ground with its small Feet.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 456. The sun,… whose oblique course is not unaptly represented by the wreathings of a snake.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 451. The attendants told me, from the wreathing of her body…, that she would soon have another fit.
1823. Joanna Baillie, Poems, 260. [Steam] With tressy wreathings playing in the air.
1885. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, Oct., 23. Mid the wreathings of the vapour dim The goddess grew in glory visible.
fig. 1612. Shelton, Quix., I. IV. vi. (1620), 345. His Friend did notable injurie to their amitie in searching out wreathings and ambages in the discovery of his most hidden thoughts to him.
1641. Fannant, True Relat. Parl. Rich. II., 37. Those infinit wreathings of contention.
b. concr. That which is wreathed or twisted.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. xiii. 449. And for these grafts it is ynough, if euerie one of them, haue one good eielet or two aboue the wreathing.
1634. Peacham, Compl. Gentl. (ed. 2), xii. 110. To Painters, for the picturing of some exquisit arme, leg, torse or wreathing of the body.
† 2. A wresting of the sense or meaning of something. Obs.
1628. Prynne, Cens. Cozens, 67. Which is a grosse abuse, a wreathing, a peruerting of the Scriptures.
3. The action or fact of entwining or intertwining; an instance of this.
1553. [see WRAPPING vbl. sb. 1 b].
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 53. Boughes and braunches … did … dilate Their clasping armes, in wanton wreathings intricate.
1661. Boyle, Spring of Air, II. ii. (1682), 32. In strings there is required either wreathing or some … texture of component parts.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Cry of Children, viii. Let them touch each other’s hands, in a fresh wreathing Of their tender human youth!
a. 1901. W. Bright, Age Fathers (1903), II. 23. Prohibited all idolatry whatever, even to the wreathing of a garland for the Penates.
4. The action of investing with a wreath.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxx. IX. 137. The operations of wreathing and unwreathing must here have been performed by the soldiers symbolically.
