embrace

verb

1. 1

   To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.

   I will imbrace him with a ſouldiour's arme, / That he ſhall ſhrinke vnder my curteſie, […]

   And after the vprore was ceaſed, Paul called vnto him the diſciples, and imbraced them, & departed, for to go into Macedonia.

   Theſe lulld by Nightingales imbraceing ſlept, / And on thir naked limbs the flourie roof / Showrd Roſes, which the Morn, repair'd.

   Thou doſt reduce me when I err; thou ſtayeſt for me when I am dull; thou imbraceſt me when I return; thou teacheſt me when I am ignorant; […]

2. 2

   figurativeTo seize (something) eagerly or with alacrity; to accept or take up with cordiality; to welcome.

   I wholeheartedly embrace the new legislation.

   The louer refused of his loue imbraceth death. [poem title]

   I take it your owne buſineſſe cals on you, / And you embrace the occaſion to depart.

   Theſe all died in faith, not hauing received the promiſes, but hauing ſeene them a farre off, and were perſwaded of them, and embraced them, and confeſſed that they were ſtrangers and pilgrims on the earth.

3. 3

   figurativeTo submit to; to undergo.

   What I haue done my ſafety vrg'd me to: / And I embrace this fortune patiently, / Since not to be auoided it fals on me.

   Faced with the most significant public health crisis in a century, the population has largely embraced the strict but essential government instructions on social distancing that have been carefully designed to protect lives and to curb the spread of COVID-19.

4. 4

   figurativeTo encircle; to enclose, to encompass.

   Low at his foot a ſpacious Plain is plac't, / Between the Mountain and the Stream embrac't: / Which ſhade and ſhelter from the Hill derives, / While the kind River Wealth and Beauty gives; […]

   But it was not this that conveyed the size of the steppe so much as the multiplicity of these nomadic encampments, cropping up wherever the eye rested, yet invariably separate by a mile or two from their neighbours. There were hundreds of them, and the sight, therefore, seemed to embrace hundreds of miles.

5. 5

   figurativeTo enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.); to encompass.

   Natural philosophy embraces many sciences.

   Not that my ſong, in ſuch a ſcanty ſpace, / So large a Subject fully can embrace: […]

   The Man from Mars sat down again when Jill left. He did not pick up the picture book they had given him but simply waited in a fashion which may be described as "patient" only because human language does not embrace Martian attitudes.

6. 6

   obsoleteTo fasten on, as armour.

   VVho ſeeing him from far ſo fierce to pricke, / His warlike armes about him gan embrace, / And in the reſt his ready ſpeare did ſticke; […]

7. 7

   figurativeTo accept (someone) as a friend; to accept (someone's) help gladly.

   He bears himſelfe more proudlier, / Euen to my perſon, then I thought he would / When firſt I did embrace him.

8. 8

   figurativeTo attempt to influence (a court, jury, etc.) corruptly; to practise embracery.

   The puniſhment for the perſon embracing is by fine and impriſonment; and, for the juror ſo embraced, if it be by taking money, the puniſhment is (by divers ſtatutes of the reign of Edward III) perpetual infamy, impriſonment for a year, and forfeiture of the tenfold value.

noun

1. 1

   An act of putting arms around someone and bringing the person close to the chest; a hug.

   [E]yes, looke your laſt, / Armes take your laſt embrace: and lips, O you / The doores of breath, ſeale with a righteous kiſſe / A dateleſſe bargain to ingroſſing death: […]

   That Gentleman I mean to make the model of my Fortunes, and in his chaſt imbraces keep alive the memory of my loſt lovely Loveleſe: he is ſomewhat like him too.

   [A] long and affectionate embrace supplied the place of language in bidding each other adieu; […]

   […] And tears are on the mother’s face, ⁠As parting with a long embrace She enters other realms of love; […]

2. 2

   figurativeAn enclosure partially or fully surrounding someone or something.

   When he reached the ridge the outlying fog crept across the summit, caught him in its embrace, and wrapped him from her gaze.

   We were now within the embrace of a broad bay flanked on either hand by a low promontory.

3. 3

   figurativeFull acceptance (of something).

   And it was the white blood which sent him to the minister, which rising in him for the last and final time, sent him against all reason and all reality, into the embrace of a chimera, a blind faith in something read in a printed Book.

   It then occurred to Barbara, and recurred more strongly after she had learned of Ricky's marriage and her sale of the school in England, her eager embrace of Islam, and the total handing over of her lot to Joe Ramdez, that there had been no secret state of mind in Ricky.

4. 4

   figurativeAn act of enfolding or including.

   In India men are enjoined to be fully awake to the fact that they are in the closest relation to things around them, body and soul, and that they are to hail the morning sun, the flowing water, the fruitful earth, as the manifestation of the same living truth which holds them in its embrace.

Forms

plural

embraces

past tense

embraced

past participle

embraced

present participle

embracing

third person singular

embraces