1. trans. To wrap, envelop, enfold in or with (a garment, case, or covering, coils or folds of anything); also, with the thing enveloping as subject. lit. and fig. † In early use also: To fold up (a garment).
α. 1382. Wyclif, Jer. x. 8. A tree … with siluer enwrappid.
1548. Gest, Pr. Masse, 71. To enwrap.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 95 b. Twoo Cypres trees … enwrapped with Iuy proper.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, IV. 51. Membranes enwrappyng round the ioyntes. Ibid., VIII. 105. They are enwrapped both with the thinne, and also the hard Membrans.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 280. It ought to be applied enwrapped well in wooll.
1683. A. Snape, Anat. Horse, IV. xxi. (1686), 188. For it enwrappeth almost all the Muscles of the Thigh.
1725–6. Pope, Odyss., VIII. 339. Down rushed the toils, enwrapping as they lay The careless lovers.
1775. R. Chandler, Trav. Asia M. (1825), I. 82. The women of the Turks … when they go out, are enwrapped in white linen.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 144. Petals … enwrapping the stamens.
1845. P. Parley’s Ann., VI. 80. The body of a man … enwrapped in a shroud.
β. 1382. Wyclif, 2 Kings ii. 8. Helyas tooke his mantyll, and inwrappyde it. Ibid., Prov. xxix. 6. The sinnende wicke man a grene shal inwrappe.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., II. IX. (Arb.), 132. When shee seeth her younge chekyn inwrapped in towe or flaxe.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxii. § 6. Yy 1. How they [the affections] are inwrapped one within another.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Wiltshire, III. 165. His Armes … three Children-heads … Inwrapped about their necks, with as many Snakes Proper.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 253. Inwrapped in sometimes ten or eleven green husky Leaves.
b. transf. To wrap, enfold closely in a surrounding medium, e.g., clouds, darkness, vapor. Of the medium: To envelop. Also fig.
α. 1545. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke (1548), xxiii. 806. Enwrapping his minde and sentence in the mistical darknesse of parables.
1563. Sackville, Mirr. Mag., Induct. 5. The mantels rent, wherein enwrapped been The gladsome groves.
1640. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks., II. (1660), 38. Neither can it ever see more then half the World at once; darkness the while enwraps the other.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 415. The fiery meteor, enwrapt in clouds and darkness.
1848. Miller, First Impr., xi. (1857), 172. It stands half enwrapped in tall wood.
a. 1849. Poe, E. B. Browning, Wks. 1864, III. 403. A mystical something or nothing enwrapped in a fog of rhapsody.
β. 1590–6. Spenser, F. Q., II. v. 28 (J.). Arachne … spred her subtile net, Enwrapped in fowle smoke.
1668. Howe, Bless. Righteous (1825), 53. And inwraps it in the blackness of darkness for ever.
1878. G. Macdonald, Phantastes, III. xxii. 161. Inwrapt me like an odorous vapour.
c. Const. from.
a. 1849. Poe, Valentine, Poems (1859), 57. Her own sweet name that nestling lies upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
1883. T. Hardy, in Longm. Mag., July, 254. The inevitable glooms of a straitened hard-working life occasionally enwrap him from such pleasures as he has.
2. fig. a. To contain implicitly, involve.
1642. Observ. on his Majesty’s Answ. to Decl. Parl., 13. Whether this or that Doctrine enwraps the greatest Danger.
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 619. The benefits enwrapped in this salvation for the Church.
1882. Pop. Science Monthly, XXII. 148. An act which inwraps so much of irreparable loss.
b. To ‘wrap’ in slumber, trance, etc.; to absorb or engross in contemplation, thought, etc.
In some applications of this sense the pa. pple. is liable to be confused with ENRAPT, q.v.
α. 1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XIV. xvii. 254. Enwrapt in fond desire.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., IV. iii. 3. Though ’tis wonder that enwraps me thus, Yet ’tis not madnesse.
1629. Milton, Nativity, 134. If such holy song Enwrap our fancy long.
β. 1589. Greene, Arcadia (1616), 41. His trance, wherein the present wonder had inwrapt him.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. (1851), 68. I doe now feele my selfe inwrapt on the sodaine into those mazes and Labyrinths of dreadfull and hideous thoughts.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, 176/2. Too much inwrapped in the contemplation of his happiness.
† c. To involve, implicate, entangle (in danger, guilt, suffering); to involve in a common fate with another. Obs.
α. 1382. Wyclif, 1 Sam. xv. 6. Departith fro Amalech, lest perauenture I enwrappe thee with hem.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, I. i. 74. We should feare to be enwrapped in his danger.
1636. Sanderson, Serm., II. 47. And from enwrapping himself within the guilt of their transgressions.
1826. E. Irving, Babylon, II. VI. 133. That day of wrath … fearfully enwrappeth them all in the horror of its last hour.
β. 1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 97/1. They inwrapped themselues in … miserie and desolation.
1635. R. N., trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., IV. 578. His confession … inwrapped many.
1675. Brooks, Gold. Key, Wks. 1867, V. 147. The first Adam … plunged himself into all unrighteousness, and so inwrapped himself in the curse.
Hence Enwrapped, -wrapt ppl. a.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxiii. § 33. Ccc 3 a–b. Somewhat viscouse and inwrapped, and not easie to turne.
1611. Chapman, Iliad, I. 313/8. To heauen the thicke fumes bore Enwrapped sauours.
a. 1638. Mede, Wks., I. xliv. 250. When the inwrapped Promises were unfolded and revealed.
1868. Selden’s Table-t. (Arb.), Introd. 9. Their inwrapped principles may be understood in their nature.
