1. trans. To lay (a vessel) within a bay. Also of the action of the wind or tide: To force (a vessel) into a bay; to detain within a bay.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 149. Being immediately embayed in the Grand bay.
1628. Digby, Jrnl. (Camden), 21. When wee were come with our shippes as neere the shore … as wee could, for feare of being embayed.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., I. i. (1852), 44. He found himself embayed within a mighty head of land.
1810. Edin. Rev., XVII. 150. Many small whales … are yearly embayed and killed.
1870. Illust. Lond. News, 29 Oct., 438. The headland before her must be weathered, unless she would be embayed and stranded.
b. transf. ? with a reference to BAY sb.3
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. xviii. 192. Some of them might miss the real doors, and be driven into the intervals, and embayed there.
2. pass. Of a town: To be enclosed within a bay.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., IV. ii. 313. The town Castries is quite embayed.
1842. Sterling, Lett., in Carlyle, Life, III. iv. (1872), 199. The town … is not at all embayed, though there is some little shelter for shipping within the mole.
3. refl. Of the sea: To form a bay. rare.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, III. 97. But finding … the sea to embay it self on both sides the Land.
4. To enclose (as in a bay); to shut in; to envelop, surround; also fig.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (1880), 50. Laocoon … Is to sone embayed with wrapping girdle y coompast.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 16. We found our selues imbayed with a mightie headland.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1860. We were, in some degree, embayed by the ice.
1792. Fortn. Ramble, xi. 69. Bridder Water … looks as if embayed in mountains.
1862. G. P. Scrope, Volcanoes, 176. The waters were embayed in eddies or pools.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., II. xxii. 32. He found himself embayed in a labyrinth without end.
