environing

Verb

environ (third-person singular simple present environs, present participle environing, simple past and past participle environed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To encircle or surround (someone or something).
   • For now I ſtand as one vpon a rocke, / Inuirond with a wildernes of ſea, / VVho markes the vvaxing tide, grovv vvaue by vvaue, / Expecting euer vvhen ſome enuious ſurge, / VVill in his briniſh bovvels ſvvallow him.c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas...

   Synonyms:

   belay

   1. (obsolete, often, transitive) To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as to attack from all sides; to beset.
      • The Erle in good haſte departed thence to Penbroke, whome incontinent Morgan Thomas, by king Edwards commaundement ſo ſtrongly beſieged, and ſo enuironed his Caſtell with a ditche and a trench, that he could not lightly flie or eſcape thence, […]1569, Richard Grafton, “Edwarde the Fourth”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey...
   2. (obsolete, transitive, chiefly passive voice) To encircle or surround (a heraldic element such as a charge or escutcheon (shield)).
      • Az[ure], an annulet environing a barrulet, betw[een] two bars and in chief a cross patty fitchy or.1874, John W[oody] Papworth, “1 ANNULET betw. or within … and in chief …”, in Alfred W. Morant, editor, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland...
2. (obsolete, transitive) To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).
   • Farre off a hill and mountaine high they ſpide, / VVhoſe top the cloudes enuiron, cloath and hide; […]1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Fifteenth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […]...

   Synonyms:

   belay

3. (obsolete, transitive) Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).
   • Lonely her fate was, / Environed from sight / In the house where the gate was / Past finding at night.1922, Thomas Hardy, “Lonely Days”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 191
4. (obsolete, transitive, chiefly passive voice) Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
   • [A]ll of them, upon an aſſociation made in the night, agreed to ſide vvith him, vvith aſſurance of ſafe conduct being gladly admitted unto them, environed he vvas vvith a multitude thronged together of vendible or ſale ſouldiors, […]1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, “[The XXVI. Booke.] Chapter VIII. Whiles Valens is Farre Removed by Occasion of Warre against the Gothes, Procopius Putting Forward His Intended Businesse, is by...

See all 12 meanings of environ