wreath

plural wreaths

1. Something twisted, intertwined, or curled.

   a wreath of smoke    a wreath of clouds

   1 more example

   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: Blackie and Son, →OCLC

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

   1 more example

   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. governmentAn 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

present singular third person wreaths · participle present wreathing · participle past wreathed · past wreathed

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of wreathe.

   [Y]ou haue learn'd (like Sir Protheus) to vvreath your Armes like a Male-content: […]

   c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 23, column 2

   5 more examples

   Sale) or Salovv a kind of vvoodde like VVyllovv, fit to vvreath and bynde in leapes to catch fiſh vvithall.

   1579, E. K., “[December. Ægloga Duodecima.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 51, verso

   [T]o wreſt the will of man, or to wreath his hearte to our humours, it is not in the compaſſe of Arte, but in the power of the moſt higheſt.

   1580, Iohn Lyly [i.e., John Lyly], Euphues and His England. […], London: […] [Thomas East] for Gabriell Cawood, […], →OCLC, folio 63, recto

   [F]or griefe his hart did grate, / And from ſo heauie ſight his head did vvreath, / Accuſing fortune, and too cruell fate, / VVhich plonged had faire Lady in ſo vvretched ſtate.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 56, page 203

   The bitings of lyons and ſuch like beaſtes are ſo dangerous, in regard of their ſtrength and fierceneſſe, for they doe not onely bite, but alſo vvreath and teare the vvounds vvhich they make vvith their teeth, or nailes: […]

   1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “Of the Lyon. [The Medicines of the Lyon.]”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 487

   [T]he Beards of vvilde Oates, and thoſe of divers other vvilde Plants; […] almoſt continually vvreath and unvvreath themſelves according to, even, the light variations of the temperature of the ambient Air.

   1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, “A Digression Containing Some Doubts Touching Respiration”, in New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall, printer to the University, for Tho[mas] Robinson, published 1660, →OCLC, page 379