Forms: see prec.; also Sc. 6 wumpil, 7 wo(o)mple. [f. WIMPLE sb.; cf. LG. wimpelen.]
I. 1. trans. To envelop in a wimple; loosely, to veil († occas. pass. to take the veil).
c. 1240. Ancr. R., 420 (MS. C). Wrihen, he seið, naut wimplin. Ibid. Al beo þu i-wimplet.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. i. (1868), 31. She þat ȝit couereþ hir and wympleþ [orig. velat] hir to oþer folk haþ shewed hir euerydel to þe. Ibid. (c. 1386), Prol., 470. Ywympled wel, and on hir heed an hat.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 2837. Wympled but in symple guyse. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, II. xxviii. (1554), 64. Rhea … Entered into religion, For to be wympled in that holy house, Sacred to Uesta.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 9938. Wympled she was both cheke and chin.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. lxviii. 531. Al wayes she was wympeld that no man myȝt see her vysage.
1592. Lyly, Midas, I. i. Iustice her selfe, that sitteth wimpled about the eyes.
1615. W. Hull, Mirr. Majestie, 82. They wimpled those eyes.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., VII. 91, note. Ne Titan on woold putt his golden flize, But wimpled fast his melancholie eies.
1822. Scott, Nigel, Introd. Ep. His figure was so closely veiled and wimpled, either with a mantle, morning-gown or some such loose garb.
1870. Rock, Text. Fabr., I. 30. A female, crowned and wimpled.
† b. intr. for pass. To be veiled. Obs. rare.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Reboçar, to wimple, to go with the face hidden, caput inuoluere.
2. fig. To veil, cover.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. xiv. (Skeat), l. 25. With fayre honyed wordes heretykes and mis-meninge people skleren and wimplen their errours. Ibid., III. ix. l. 76. In this boke be many privy thinges wimpled and folde.
1620. Hist. Reynard the Fox, xviii. He that cannot wimple falshood in truths kerchiffe, hath neither Art nor cunning.
1898. A. F. Whitmore, in Atlantic Monthly, April, 503/2. He will gaze tenderly into the white faces of his cauliflowers, as with pinned leaves he wimples them from the sun.
† 3. transf. and fig. To enfold, enwrap, wrap up.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. iv. 93. Wymplit and buskit [orig. innexa] in a bludy bend. Ibid., VII. xii. 61. His body wymplit [orig. impexum] in A felloun bustuus and gret lyoun skyn. Ibid., X. xiii. 134. The fatale sisteris tho in deyd Had wymplyt vp [orig. legunt] this Lawsus lattyr threid.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 61. Ane body of ane zoung chyld … wumpillit wpoun sandell.
1594. R. Carew, Tasso (1881), 80. Her sparing looke a coy regard doth beare, And loues treasures, and hers vp wympelled.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, v. 2. No wonder thoght I waill and weip, That womplit am in woes.
1607. B. Barnes, Divils Charter, IV. iii. H 1. I perceiue a little riueling Aboue my for-head but I wimple it Either with iewels or a lock of haire.
1616. Rollock’s Lect. Passion, Ep. Ded. 2 b. He will thirst to be woompled in the wounds of Iesus.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (Bannatyne Club), I. 208. Whilk charge so wrytten was wompled about ane arrow head, syne shott up over the castle walls, wher Ruthven might find the same.
4. pass. and intr. To fall in folds.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 4. A vele, that wimpled was full low.
1751. R. Lloyd, Progr. Envy, viii. Poems (1762), 210. Her mantle wimpled low.
1859–60. Jas. Hamilton, Moses, xviii. (1871), 283. Curtains of delicate texture, all wimpling with the golden wings of cherubim.
5. pass. To be stretched like a wimple or veil.
1868. E. R. Sill, Poems, Evening, i.
| The Sun is gone: those glorious chariot-wheels | |
| Have sunk their broadening spokes of flame, and left | |
| Thin rosy films wimpled across the West. |
II. 6. intr. Of a stream: To meander, twist and turn; also, to ripple. Chiefly Sc.
1721. Ramsay, Poet’s Wish, i. Tay and Tweed’s smooth Streams … quietly … wimple to the Seas.
1785. Burns, Halloween, ii. Amang the bonie, winding banks, Where Doon rins, wimplin, clear.
1848. Eliza Cook, Bonnie green bough, iv. Streamlets, ye are pleasant things, Whimpling as ye glide.
1849. Aytoun, Poems, Refusal of Charon, iii. Or near some sparkling fountain, Where the waters wimple down!
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes, 19. You may hear it wimpling over the stones, an amiable stripling of a river.
transf. 1896. Crockett, Grey Man, i. A dark train of horsemen … Their line wimpled like a serpent.
7. To move shiftily or unsteadily.
1819. J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay, xix. They struck her keel with jerk and blow,… She wimpled about, in the pale moonbeam, like a feather.
1886. Kipling, Departm. Ditties, etc. (1888), 73. When comes the licht That wimples on his face?
