wreathe

verb

Etymology: From Middle English wrethen (“to twist”), partly: * from wrethen (“twisted, wreathed”) (whence modern English wreathen (“(obsolete) made into a wreath; twisted”, adjective)), the past participle of writhen, wrythen (“to twist into a braid, coil, or wreath; to twist out of position or shape, deform; to twist together, intertwine; to twist about, writhe; to bend; to swathe, wrap; etc.”), from Old English wrīþan (“to twist; to bind; to wrap”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrīþan (“to twist; to weave”), from Proto-Germanic *wrīþaną (“to twist; to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (“to twist”); and * from wreth, wrethe (“coiled or rounded shape; decorative garland, wreath; chaplet, crown; ring”, noun), from Old English wrǣd, wrǣþ, wriþa (“bandage”), from Proto-West Germanic *wrīþan (“to twist; to weave”) (see further above).

1. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “[S]he ſtarts like one that ſpies an adder, / VVreath'd vp in fatall folds iuſt in his vvay, / The feare vvhereof doth make him ſhake, & ſhudder, […]”

   “[T]he Beards of vvilde Oates, and thoſe of divers other vvilde Plants; […] almoſt continually vvreath and unvvreath themſelves according to, even, the light variations of the temperature of the ambient Air.”

2. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “[W]ith Laurels vvreath your poſts, / And ſtrovv vvith Flovv'rs the Pavement; […]”

   “Eſcap'd the flaſhing of the noontide hours / VVith one freſh garland of Pierian flovvers / (Ere from thy zephyr-haunted brink I turn) / My languid hand ſhall vvreath thy moſſy urn.”

3. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “Death's Harbingers, lye latent in the Draught: / And in the Flovv'rs that vvreath the ſparkling Bovvl, / Fell Adders hiſs, and poys'nous Serpents roll.”

   “O'er Diſappointment's vvintry deſart fling / Each flovver, that vvreath'd the devvy locks of Spring, / VVhen bluſhing, like a bride, from Hope's trim bovver / She leapt, avvaken'd by the pattering ſhovver.”

4. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “wreathed in mystery”

   “At the funeral, a circle of comrades wreathed the grave of the honoured deceased.”

5. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “He had a kercher wreathed aboute his heed: […]”

   “[A]bout his necke / A greene and guilded ſnake had vvreath'd it ſelfe, […]”

6. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “[Y]ou haue learn'd (like Sir Protheus) to vvreath your Armes like a Male-content: […]”

   “You do not loue Maria? Longauile, / Did neuer Sonnet for her ſake compile, / Nor neuer lay his vvreathed arms athvvart / His louing boſome, to keepe dovvne his hart.”

7. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “On th' other ſide, Adam, ſoon as he heard / The fatal Treſpaſs don by Eve, amaz'd, / Aſtonied ſtood and Blank, vvhile horror chill / Ran through his veins, and all his joynts relax'd; / From his ſlack hand the Garland vvreath'd for Eve / Dovvn drop'd, and all the faded Roſes ſhed: […]”

   “[Y]our friend Piers / Wreath'd me this cowslip garland for my head— […]”

8. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
9. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

   “Yf ther be twaine, one may defend the tother ouer throwne. / The single twyned cordes may no suche stresse indure / As cables brayded thre fould may, together wrethed swer [i.e., sure].”

   “Sale) or Salovv a kind of vvoodde like VVyllovv, fit to vvreath and bynde in leapes to catch fiſh vvithall.”

10. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

    “[T]he French troops vvere to be employed as inſtruments for ſubduing the Scots, and vvreathing the yoke about their necks.”

11. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

    “[W]hen the Hoppe groweth high it muſt haue a pole, when the Iuie ſpreadeth, it cleaueth to the flint, when the Vine riſeth, it wreatheth about yͤ Elme, […]”

12. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.

    “I unsealed the vial mystical, / I outpoured the liquid thing, / And while the smoke came wreathing out, / I stood unshuddering.”

    “Real fire of pine-wood in some rocky place, / Wreathing around my body greedily, / A dreadful beacon o'er the leaden sea.”

13. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
14. Senses relating to intertwining or twisting.
15. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “Contempt kept Bertram's anger down, / And wreathed to savage smile his frown.”

    “[…] Gilbert of Ghent, […] walked up to the pair, his weather-beaten countenance wreathed into what were meant for paternal smiles.”

16. Senses relating to vigorous movement.
17. Senses relating to vigorous movement.
18. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “If an huge ſcaly Salmon chance to ſpy / The vvanton Errors of the ſvvimming Fly, / […] / Soon in ſmart Pains he feels the dire Miſtake, / Laſhes the VVaves, and beats the foamy Lake, / […] / And novv again, impatient of the VVound, / He rolls and vvreathes his ſhining Body round; […]”

    “Warm corpses fall upon the clay cold dead; / And even in death their lips are wreathed with fear.— […]”

19. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “The ſame day in the afternoone we ſawe in the element, a cloud with a long tayle, like vnto the tayle of a ſerpent, which cloud is called in Italian Cion, the tayle of this cloud did hang as it were into the ſea: […] The Marriners reported to vs that it had this propertie, that if it ſhould happen to haue lighted on any part of the ſhippe, that it would rent and wreth ſayles, maſt, ſhroudes and ſhippe and all in manner like a wyth: on the land, trees, houſes, or whatſoeuer elſe it lighteth on, it would rent and wreth.”

    “The bitings of lyons and ſuch like beaſtes are ſo dangerous, in regard of their ſtrength and fierceneſſe, for they doe not onely bite, but alſo vvreath and teare the vvounds vvhich they make vvith their teeth, or nailes: […]”

20. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “[T]o wreſt the will of man, or to wreath his hearte to our humours, it is not in the compaſſe of Arte, but in the power of the moſt higheſt.”

    “They killed a man vvhich vvas a firſt-borne, vvreathing his head from his bodie, and embalming the ſame vvith ſalt and ſpices: & then vvrote vpon a plate of gold the name of an vncleane ſpirit, and putting the ſame vnder the head, ſet it vpon a vvall, & burned Candles before it and vvorſhipped the ſame.”

21. Senses relating to vigorous movement.
22. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “[…] Thoſe of fairer front, / But equal inhumanity, in courts, / And ſlippery pomp delight, in dark cabals; / VVreathe the deep bovv, diffuſe the lying ſmile, / And tread the vveary labyrinth of ſtate.”

23. Senses relating to vigorous movement.
24. Senses relating to vigorous movement.

    “[F]or griefe his hart did grate, / And from ſo heauie ſight his head did vvreath, / Accuſing fortune, and too cruell fate, / VVhich plonged had faire Lady in ſo vvretched ſtate.”

    “But Aiax a farre greater ſtone, lift vp, and (vvreathing round, / VVith all his bodie layd to it) he ſent it forth to vvound, / And gaue vnmeaſur'd force to it; the round ſtone broke vvithin / His rundled target: […]”