1. trans. To put into or enclose within a case or receptacle. Also fig.
1727. De Foe, Hist. Appar., v. (1840), 45. Souls which have been encased in flesh.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 243–4. Are not individuals to dress and incase the dead bodies, in whatever manner they please?
1823. Scott, Peveril, xlviii. The creature was incased [in a violoncello] and mounted on a man’s shoulders!
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xix. 240. The body was encased in a decent pine coffin.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 671. A little soul is encased in a large body.
2. To overlay, surround, hem in as with a case.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., V. xxxiv. 55. The glassie wall (that round encasing The moat of glasse is nam’d from that enlacing).
1791. Cowper, Iliad, X. 348. Whose horns I will encase with gold.
1795–7. Southey, Poet. Wks., II. 149. Green moss shines there with ice incased.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 170. The sternum … is divided by a moveable articulation into two lids, which … completely encase the animal in its shell.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), 321. The sanctuary was … encased with buildings.
b. To clothe, cover, invest. Chiefly humorous.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 333. In radiant Panoply his limbs incas’d.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxi. His legs were encased in silk stockings.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, I. 13. Well encased in warm sheepskin jackets and felt shoes.
