embracing

Verb

embrace (third-person singular simple present embraces, present participle embracing, simple past and past participle embraced)

1. (transitive) To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.
   • There was no faynting faith in that Dogge, which when his Master by a mischaunce in hunting stumbled and fell toppling downe a deepe dytche beyng vnable to recouer of himselfe, the Dogge signifying his masters mishappe, reskue came, and he was hayled up by a rope, whom the Dogge seeying almost...1576, Iohannes Caius [i.e., John Caius], “Dogges of a Course Kind Seruing for Many Necessary Uses, Called in Latine Canes Rustici, and First of the Shepherds Dogge, Called in Latine Canis...

   Synonyms:

   fall on someone's neck

2. (figuratively, transitive) To seize (something) eagerly or with alacrity; to accept or take up with cordiality; to welcome.
   • I wholeheartedly embrace the new legislation.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To submit to; to undergo.
   • What I haue done my ſafety vrg'd me to: / And I embrace this fortune patiently, / Since not to be auoided it fals on me.c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

   Synonyms:

   accept

4. (also, figuratively, transitive) To encircle; to enclose, to encompass.
   • Low at his foot a ſpacious Plain is plac't, / Between the Mountain and the Stream embrac't: / Which ſhade and ſhelter from the Hill derives, / While the kind River Wealth and Beauty gives; […]1642, John Denham, “Coopers Hill”, in Poems and Translations, with the Sophy. […], 4th edition, Printed by T. W. for H[enry] Herringman and sold by Jacob Tonson […], and Thomas Bennet […], published...

   Synonyms:

   entwine, surround

5. (figuratively, transitive) To enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.); to encompass.
   • Natural philosophy embraces many sciences.
6. (obsolete, rare, transitive) To fasten on, as armour.
   • VVho ſeeing him from far ſo fierce to pricke, / His warlike armes about him gan embrace, / And in the reſt his ready ſpeare did ſticke; […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 26, page 194

See all 12 meanings of embrace