Also 7 infould. Pa. pple. occas. 7 infold, 9 enfolden. [f. EN-1, IN- + FOLD sb. and v.] To put into a fold, or within folds.
1. trans. To wrap up, envelope in or with a garment, or a surrounding medium of any kind. Also with the garment, etc., as subject.
α. 1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), I. 192. Seed single … enfolded in the cup.
1860. Trench, Mirac., xvi. (1862), 272. The oak is enfolded in the acorn.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. 34. The royal robes in which the body had been enfolded were borne away.
β. 1647. H. More, Song of Soul, IV. xxxvi. She in the body was infold, Of this low life.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xx. 52/2. It hath two Membranes, and one Muscle infolding the whole bladder.
1713. Pope, Windsor For., 393. The pearly shell [shall] its lucid globe infold. Ibid. (1725), Odyss., III. 540. Artist divine, whose skilful hands infold The victim’s horn with circumfusile gold.
1728. Young, Love Fame, V. (1757), 137. Gay rainbow silks her mellow charms infold.
1875. B. Taylor, Faust, II. ii. II. 101. Cast o’er The knight your magic mantle, and infold him!
b. fig.
α. 1674. Farrar, Bulk & Selv., Ep. Ded. The kindness … is wont to be enfolded mainly within the rank or stock … of the same.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 319. All Plants … A confluential Loveliness enfold.
1820. Shelley, Witch Atl., ii. She lay enfolden In the warm shadow of her loveliness.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxiv. 83. His love enfolded her childish heart with more than mortal tenderness.
β. 1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. iii. 73. Vnlesse the breath of Hartsicke groanes Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt. (1851), Pref. 95. That book within whose sacred context all wisdome is infolded.
1867. G. Macdonald, Poems, 58. Night infolds the day.
2. To encompass, encircle; to clasp, embrace. Also fig.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VII. xxxi. (T.). For all the crest a Dragon did enfold With greedie pawes.
1618. Chapman, Hesiod, II. 236.
| Since yet she neuer knew, how to enfolde | |
| The force of Venus swimming all in golde. |
1633. P. Fletcher, Elisa, II. v. Poet. Misc., 119. Her snow-white arms … their now dead lord infold.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 555. His neck with fond embrace infolding fast.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 414. While the Muses hang enfolding Knee and foot with faint wild hands?
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 132. [Vines] with lusty stems Their elms infolding. Ibid., I. 277. Each snake, inclipping them, infolds.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. xx. 302. Its people, infolding at one extreme the offspring of colonists from Greece, and at the other the hardy children of the Northmen.
† 3. = INVOLVE. a. To imply or necessarily include. b. To involve or plunge in (disaster). Also refl. c. To involve in obligation, to oblige.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 250/1. God should infolde vs in one selfe same destruction.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1589), 145. We infold our selves in that fault, which we reproove in others. Ibid., 430. All covetous men … infold themselves in many griefs.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., I. 24. That any thing be, infolds necessarily the will and power of God thereto.
1646. N. Lockyer, Sermon, 11. There be many difficulties about the creature, but may be all infolded in one, to wit, sinne.
4. To put into the shape of a fold or succession of folds; formerly often fig. to render involved or intricate. Also refl. and intr. for refl.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vii. § 4. I 2 b. Fitter for a Declamation then agreeable to a Treatise infolded as this is.
1611. Bible, Ezek. i. 4. A whirlewinde came out of the North, a great cloude, and a fire infoulding it selfe.
1612. Drayton’s Poly-olb., Introd. A ij. The verse oft … so infolds that suddaine conceipt cannot abstract a forme of the clothed truth.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xiv. 324. As the rim is infolded.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 950. The cambium layer … becomes deeply infolded where it extends inwards.
Hence Enfolded ppl. a., Enfoldedly adv.
c. 1633. Milton, Arcades, 64. The celestial Sirens … That sit upon the nine infolded spheres.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 92. A semblance as of infolded flame.
1624. F. White, Repl. Fisher, 280. [It] is neither expresly nor infoldedly taught in holy Scripture.
