Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To twist or entwine into a wreath or a wreathlike shape.
  • intransitive verb To crown or decorate with a wreathe.
  • intransitive verb To encircle or surround.
  • intransitive verb To extend across; cover.
  • intransitive verb To coil or curl.
  • intransitive verb To curl, writhe, or spiral.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To twist; form by twisting.
  • To writhe; contort; distort.
  • To form into a wreath; adjust as a wreath or circularly; cause to pass about something.
  • To form or make by intertwining; also, to twist together or intertwine; combine, as several things into one, by twisting and intertwining.
  • To surround with a wreath or with anything twisted or twined; infold; twist, twine, or fold round.
  • To form or become a wreath about; encircle.
  • To take the form of a wreath; hence, to mingle or interlace, as two or more things with one another.
  • In milling, to hug the eye of the millstone so closely as to retard or prevent its descent: said of flour or meal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be intewoven or entwined; to twine together.
  • transitive verb obsolete To cause to revolve or writhe; to twist about; to turn.
  • transitive verb To twist; to convolve; to wind one about another; to entwine.
  • transitive verb To surround with anything twisted or convolved; to encircle; to infold.
  • transitive verb To twine or twist about; to surround; to encircle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To twist, curl or entwine something into a shape similar to a wreath
  • verb transitive To form a wreathlike shape around something
  • verb intransitive To curl, writhe or spiral in the form of a wreath
  • verb obsolete To turn violently aside or around; to wrench.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb form into a wreath
  • verb move with slow, sinuous movements
  • verb decorate or deck with wreaths

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From wreath.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Partly a back-formation of wreathen (past participle of writhe), and partly from wreath.

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Examples

  • Universal shallowness wonders and applauds; and Aristarchus the Little, fired to dare fresh achievements, is certain of new weeds to wreathe with his deciduous bays.

    “Recent exemplifications of false philology” « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • He would have his audience there, where the setting sun might wreathe him in an aura of brilliance.

    Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011

  • But if I find myself in company with other people, words at once make smoke rings — see how phrases at once begin to wreathe off my lips.

    Trumbles in Fiction III 2009

  • And I love the “new weeds to wreathe with his deciduous bays.”

    “Recent exemplifications of false philology” « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • Universal shallowness wonders and applauds; and Aristarchus the Little, fired to dare fresh achievements, is certain of new weeds to wreathe with his deciduous bays.

    2010 August « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • He would have his audience there, where the setting sun might wreathe him in an aura of brilliance.

    Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011

  • He would have his audience there, where the setting sun might wreathe him in an aura of brilliance.

    Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011

  • But if I find myself in company with other people, words at once make smoke rings — see how phrases at once begin to wreathe off my lips.

    Archive 2009-04-01 2009

  • Someday they, too, may return to wreathe the fleshless grin
 of this country, the nexus of their souls.

    El Dia de los Muertos JP Reese 2011

  • Mannanan, for example, is a "real" myth, and he did does? have the power to wreathe the island in mists to hide it from invaders.

    A Sorcerous Mist Megan Arkenberg 2010

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