Obs. exc. arch. in sense 4. Also 4 embose, enbose; 6–8 imboss. [ME. embose, perh. f. EN- + OF. bos, bois wood; the equivalent OFr. embuiser occurs with sense of AMBUSH. If so, the word is ultimately identical with IMBOSK v. The development of senses as suggested below is strange, but appears to be in accordance with the existing evidence.]
† 1. intr. Of a hunted animal: To take shelter in, plunge into, a wood or thicket. Obs.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 352. [The hunters recounted] how the hert had vpon lengthe So moche embosed [v.r. enbosed, enbosid] I not nowe what.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 8.
| Look quickly, lest the Sight of us | |
| Should cause the startled Beast t’ imboss. |
† b. The pa. pple. is used by Milton for imbosked.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1697. Like that self-begotten bird, In the Arabian woods imbost.
† 2. To drive (a hunted animal) to extremity. Obs.
(The sense ‘drive to a thicket,’ required by the etymology above suggested, is not clearly evidenced).
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 21. Curres … hauing … The Saluage beast embost in weary chace.
1596. Drayton, Leg., II. 379. Like a Deere, before the Hounds imbost.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, III. vi. 107. We have almost imbost him, you shall see his fall to night.
1654. Gayton, Pleasant Notes on Don Quixot, 210. As Mules and Horses, who are imboss’d, foame and chafe the more.
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, IV. ii. (1735), 68. Was ever lion thus by dogs emboss’d?
1768. E. Buys, Dict. Terms Art, To Emboss (in Hunting), to inclose in a Thicket.
† 3. In pass. of a hunted animal: To be exhausted by running; hence, to foam at the mouth (as a result of exhaustion in running). Also transf. of persons: (a.) To be exhausted, at the last extremity of fatigue; (b.) to foam at the mouth (from rage, etc.). Obs.
[The sense ‘to foam at the mouth’ is prob. influenced by EMBOSS v.1, as if an ‘embossed stag’ were one ‘studded’ with bubbles of foam. Cf. IMBOST v., to foam at the mouth (Cockaine, 1591), IMBOST sb., foam (R. Bradley, 1727).]
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurell, 24. Where hartis belluyng, embosyd with distres Ran on the raunge.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Venerie, 242. When he is foamy at the mouth, we saye that he is embost.
1595. Markham, Sir R. Grinuill, cxxiii. With rage imbost. Ibid. (1611), Countr. Content., I. iv. (1668), 25. A stag … imbost, that is, foaming … about the mouth.
1611. Cotgr., Malmené … imbossed, or almost spent, as a Deere by hard pursuit.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., ii. 191. As a stag embossed takes the soyle.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, II. xlix. He [the stag] is imbos’d, and weary’d to a Bay.
fig. 1592. Warner, Albion’s Eng., VII. xxxvi. (1612), 175. My chased Heart imboste and almost spent.
1624. Quarles, Job, Poems (1717), 227. My spirit’s faint … my soul’s imbost.
4. trans. To cover with foam (the mouth, the body of an animal). arch.
1531. Elyot, Gov., II. vi. 120. By furie chaunged into an horrible figure, his mouthe foule and imbosed.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, The labouring stag strained full in view.
1829. Cunningham, Magic Bridle, Anniv., 148. He saw a wild steed … White foam his flanks embossing.
