1. trans. To fix firmly in a surrounding mass of some solid material. Also refl.
α. 1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. viii. 62. Calcareous substances are in general found where flints are embedded.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. iv. 147. Leeches … embed themselves in the earth.
1879. J. Timbs, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 6/2. Iron girders embedded in brickwork and cement.
1882. Standard, 5 Sept., 6/1. The workman takes one diamond and embeds it in heated cement.
β. 1778. Whitehurst, Inquiry Earth, xii. 90. Marine exuviæ found imbedded near the tops of mountains.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 436. Masses of the same sort of substance, lying as it were embedded in the brain.
1816. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (1817), 130. Crystals are said to be imbedded, when they are completely inclosed in another mineral.
1866. Livingstone, Jrnl. (1873), I. i. 29. Thus … insects are … imbedded in the gum-copal.
b. fig.
α. 1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. I. xii. 169. The light … embedded, as it were, in vast masses of shade.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 12 (1864), 198. The sensation is embedded in a movement.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 79. The winged seeds of his thought embed themselves in the memory.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 13 (1864), 248. The same optical impression … may … be imbedded in a great many different muscular impressions.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., i. 14. Parts of these … writings are imbedded in the text of the Book.
c. transf. Also in wider senses suggested by the etymology.
1848. Clough, Amours de Voy., III. 302. Nemi, imbedded in wood, Nemi inurned in the hill!
1849. Grote, Greece (1862), V. II. lx. 300. A more considerable stream, flowing deeply imbedded between lofty banks.
1852. M. Arnold, Poems, Emped. on Etna, II. Through whose [Typho’s] heart Etna drives her roots of stone To imbed them in the sea.
2. Said of the surrounding mass of material: To enclose firmly. Also fig.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxvi. (1856), 210. Fields of new ice that imbedded them in a single night.
1855. I. Taylor, Restor. Belief, 215. Those Seven Epistles … imbed our problem.
1887. C. D. Warner, in Harper’s Mag., May, 955/1. A soft sweetish pulp … embeds the two beans.
Hence Embedded ppl. a., Embedding vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 85. Others ascribed the imbedded fossil bodies to some plastic power which resided in the earth in the early ages of the world. Ibid. (1863), Antiq. Man, 8. I have spoken of the embedding of organic bodies and human remains in peat.
1877. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. ii. 113. The elegant forms of the imbedded shells.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, vii. 315. Smelting out the pure gold of revealed truth from the imbedding ore.
