wreath

Noun

wreath (plural wreaths)

1. Something twisted, intertwined, or curled.
   • a wreath of smoke a wreath of clouds
   • The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid: A Tale of Adventures, being the Strange Experiences of Roy LeFevre in the Desert during the Year 1884, London; Glasgow; Edinburgh; Dublin...
2. An ornamental circular band made, for example, of plaited flowers and leaves, and used as decoration; a garland or chaplet, especially one given to a victor.
   • So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
   • On April 16, several hundred students went to Tiananmen Square to place wreaths around the massive Monument to the People’s Heroes, an action that should have alerted the authorities to possible unrest.1989, Yi Mu, Mark V. Thompson, Crisis at Tiananmen: Reform and Reality in Modern China, San Francisco: China Books, →ISBN, page 16
3. A defect in glass.
4. An appendage to the shield, placed above it, and supporting the crest; an orle, a torse. It generally represents a twist of two cords of silk, one tinctured like the principal metal, the other like the principal color in the coat of arms.

   Synonyms:

   orle, torse