v. Obs. or arch. Also 4–5 -muwe, -mewe, 5 -mywe. [a. F. transmue-r (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), semilearned form:—L. transmūtāre to change, TRANSMUTE, f. TRANS- + mūtāre to change: see MEW v.1] trans. = TRANSMUTE 1.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 439 (467). Thow most me first transmuwen [v.r. transmute] in a ston. Ibid., 802 (830). Ioies … Þat now transmuwed ben in cruel wo.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 4323. She to A larke was transmewed.
1512. Helyas, in Thoms, Prose Rom. (1828), III. 81. His v. brethren and his sister, which were transmued in to swannes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 35. Men into stones therewith he could transmew, And stones to dust, and dust to nought at all.
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, V. iv., in Hazl., Dodsley, XII. 308. I, Robert Moth … do transmue my name to Geffery.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. xlii. As if transmew’d to stone.
1820. Scott, Monast., xviii. To cast my riding slough, and to transmew myself into some civil form.
† b. intr. for pass. = TRANSMUTE 1 c. Obs.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 2526. In siker wise thou hir salewe, Wherwith thi colour wole transmewe.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 303. Dame nature … Alle erthely thing repaireth newe … Eche thinge … Which she seth faylle and transmywe. Ibid. (a. 1461), Beware Doubleness, 44. Fortune’s wheel … Whos cours standeth ever in doute For to transmew.
