v. [ad. L. convolv-ĕre to roll together, roll up, roll round, f. con- together + volvĕre to roll.]
† 1. trans. To enclose in folds, enwrap, enfold. Obs. (Cf. involve.)
1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., III. ii. Nor can my weake imperfect memorie Now render halfe the formes unto my tongue, That were convolv’d within this thriftie roome.
1612. R. Sheldon, Serm. St. Martin’s, 28. That dreadfull whirlewind … which shall conuolue and wrap him vp with his consorts … into the whirlepoole of Eternall damnation.
1744. Armstrong, Preserv. Health, III. 53. When Eurus’ blasts This way and that convolve the labouring woods.
1794. T. Taylor, Pausanias’s Descr. Greece, III. 257. She [Ceres] stably convolves, too, and contains all secondary fountains.
2. To roll together, roll up, coil, twist. (Usually in pa. pple.)
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 144. The tongue would be convolv’d as it were into a globe.
1700. Addison, Poems, Æneid, III. Wks. 1726, I. 58. Then pours out smoke in wreathing curls convolved.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., I. 440. When he sleeps, he convolves himself into a circle, with his head in the centre.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, I. III. iv. 552. He beheld … a huge black snake, convolved about the body of his child.
1833. H. Coleridge, Poems, I. 140. Wreathed trumpets, curiously convolved.
fig. 1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., iv. 387. The human mind was convolved into completed being.
† 3. pass. To be contorted or twisted about. Obs.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 329. Then Satan first knew pain, And writh’d himn to and fro convolv’d.
1728. Thomson, Spring, 781. His sportive lambs, This way and that convolved in friskful glee, Their frolics play.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XIII. 752. Convolved with pain he lay.
4. intr. To roll over each other; to revolve together or in one system.
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., I. 278. The whirlwinds wheel above, the floods convolve below.
1849. Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, xxxix. (1875), 299. The circle wherein Mrs. Lancaster and her set convolved.
Hence Convolved ppl. a., Convolving vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; Convolvement (nonce-wd.).
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., IV. xi. 193. Made of convolved skins hardened. Ibid., X. i. 458. Vegetables … by their odd Convolving Faculty, by twisting themselves like a screw about others.
1824. Miss Ferrier, Inher., iv. Having disengaged herself from this involvement or convolvement, she dropped a curtsey to her guest.
1832. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. V. (1863), 504. The convolved and snaky roots.
1862. Miss Mulock, Domest. T., 227. The unmoved centre of so many convolving fates.
