embrace

verb

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

   “There was no faynting faith in that Dogge, which when his Master by a mischaunce in hunting stumbled and fell toppling downe a deepe dytche beyng vnable to recouer of himselfe, the Dogge signifying his masters mishappe, reskue came, and he was hayled up by a rope, whom the Dogge seeying almost drawne up to the edge of the dytche, cheerefully saluted, leaping and skipping vpon his master as though he would haue imbraced hym, beying glad of his presence, whose longer absence he was lothe to lacke.”

   “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.”

   “[…] Love, though not wholly blind, as Poets wrong him, yet having but one eye, as being born an Archer aiming, and that eye not the quickeſt in this dark region here below, which is not Loves proper ſphere, partly out of the ſimplicity, and credulity which is native to him, often deceiv'd, imbraces and comforts him with theſe obvious and ſuborned ſtriplings, as if they were his Mothers own Sons, for ſo he thinks them, while they ſuttly keep themſelves moſt on his blind ſide.”

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

2. (figuratively, transitive)To 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.”

   “Let Ignorance a little while now muſe / On what is ſaid, and let him not refuſe / Good counſel to imbrace, leſt he remain / Still Ignorant of what's the chiefeſt gain.”

3. (figuratively, transitive)To 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. (also, figuratively, transitive)To 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. (figuratively, transitive)To 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. (obsolete, rare, transitive)To 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. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To 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. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To 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. 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; […]”

   “[A] delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. "Phil! You! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.”

2. (figuratively)An 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. (figuratively)Full 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. (figuratively)An 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.”