v. Also 7 insheath. [f. EN-1 + SHEATH sb., SHEATHE v.] trans. To enclose in, or as in, a sheath.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 50. My throat … hath quite swallow’d vp and ensheath’d my tongue.
1737. Ozell, Rabelais, III. xxxiii. III. 39. The velvet scabbard that insheatheth it.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 8/2. By the triple partition of its tendon, it ensheaths the lumbar muscles.
1860. Ld. Lytton, Lucile, II. vi. § 9. In the young heart … A love large as life, deep and changeless as death, Lay ensheathed.
Hence Ensheathing ppl. a.
1877. Kinglake, Crimea, VI. vi. 317. The ensheathing columns were roughly handled.
