[f. EMBODY v. + -MENT.]
1. The action of embodying; the process or state of being embodied. lit. and fig.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 19. As long as a beautiful thought shall require physical embodiment.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 125. Souls … condemned, by reason of sin, to repeated embodiment.
1881. Athenæum, No. 2811. 348/2. No less admirable is Herr Reichmann’s embodiment of Wolfram.
2. concr. That in which (something) is embodied.
a. The corporeal ‘vesture’ or ‘habitation’ of (a soul). Also fig.
1850. Whipple, Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3), I. 311. This fiery spiritual essence was enclosed in a frame sensitive enough to be its fit embodiment.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., I. i. (1875), 13. The soul of truth contained in erroneous creeds is very unlike most … of its several embodiments.
b. That in which (a principle, an abstract idea, etc.) is embodied, actualized, or concretely expressed. Also applied (with some reference to sense a.) to persons: The embodied type, ‘incarnation’ (of a quality, sentiment, etc.).
1828. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), I. 117. The most striking embodiment of a highly remarkable belief.
1835. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. iii. 30. Jack and Stephen … are … an embodiment of my notion of an English sailor, and of a … tradesman.
1855. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., iv. 133. He is the imbodiment of the most genuine national feeling.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. i. 22. To Ralegh, the Spanish empire and polity became the very types and embodiments of evil.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 141. Works of art … the visible embodiment of the divine.
