Also 5–7 embleme. [ad. L. emblēma inlaid work, a raised ornament on a vessel, a. Gr. ἔμβλημα an insertion, f. ἐμβλη- perfect etc. stem of ἐμβάλλειν to throw in.]
† 1. An ornament of inlaid work. Obs.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Emblem, any fine work cunningly set in wood or other substance, as we see in chessboards and tables.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 703. The ground more colour’d then with stone Of costliest Emblem.
1678. in Phillips.
1775. Ash, Emblem, an inlay, an enamel, that which is inserted into some other substance.
† 2. A drawing or picture expressing a moral fable or allegory; a fable or allegory such as might be expressed pictorially. Obs.
c. 1430. Lydg., Chorle & Byrde (1818), 1. Emblemes of olde likenes and figures Whiche prouyd ben fructuous of sentence.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Seditions & Troubles (Arb.), 407. Iupiter … sent for Briareus, with his hundred Hands … An Embleme, no doubt, to shew [etc.].
1635. Quarles, Embl., Introd. (1718), 2. An Emblem is but a silent parable.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. 294. I like that Embleme of Charity which one hath expressed in a naked child, giving honey to a Bee without wings.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 52. Like the Asse … in the Embleme.
1730–6. Bailey, Emblem, a painted enigma or representation of some moral notion by way of device or picture.
† b. abstr.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. Pp 2 b. Embleme [one of the two parts of the ‘art of memory’] reduceth conceits intellectuall to Images sensible.
3. A picture of an object (or the object itself) serving as a symbolical representation of an abstract quality, an action, state of things, class of persons, etc.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 44. One Captaine Spurio with his sicatrice an Embleme of warre heere on his sinister cheeke. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., IV. i. 89. The rod, and bird of peace, and all such Emblemes Laid nobly on her.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., II. 89. Such beasts … are emblemes and hieroglyphicks of Christian vertues.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 159. The short cut coat is the emblem of a military profession.
1837. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), III. v. 76. The ox is thought to be the emblem of life or strength.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 69. The spindle or the loom was the emblem of woman.
b. In wider sense: A symbol, typical representation. Sometimes applied to a person: The ‘type,’ personification (of some virtue or quality).
a. 1631. Donne, Hymme to Christ. What sea soever swallow mee, that flood Shall be to mee an embleme of thy blood.
1683. Temple, Mem., Wks. 1731, I. 480. For my Lord Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain, I found them two most admirable Emblems of the … Felicity of Ministers of State.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), I. 14. And my Father, an Embleme of our blessed Saviour’s Parable, had even kill’d the fatted Calf for me.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 43, ¶ 5. The evening is an emblem of autumn.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. ii. 28. Mary Stuart … the emblem and exponent of all that was most Roman in Europe.
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, IX. vi. (1876), 333. Ocean, stars, and mountains, emblems and evidences of eternity.
4. A figured object used with symbolic meaning, as the distinctive badge of a person, family, nation, etc. Chiefly of heraldic devices, and of the symbolic objects accompanying the images of saints.
1616. J. Lane, Sqrs. Tale, IX. (1888), 479. So after his dead lord was pale and cold, takes off his ensigne, which his emblem bore.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1684), 78. This Tree … in after-times it became the Emblem of that Country.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxviii. The Blue Falcon, the emblem of the Clan Quhele.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Poet, Wks. (Bohn), I. 160. See the power of national emblems … a crescent, a lion, an eagle, or other figure, on an old rag of bunting.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., ix. 53. The weapon represents the emblem of St. Paul.
† 5. In pl. The evidences of sex. Obs.
1621. Fletcher, Pilgrim, IV. ii. Where are his emblems?
6. attrib. as in emblem-writer.
