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To encircle; to encompass; to inclose. Low at his feet a spacious plain is placed, Between the mountain and the stream embraced. Denham.

To gird; to encompass. Shak.

To surround; to encompass; to encircle; to hem in; to be round about; to involve or envelop. Dwelling in a pleasant glade, With mountains round about environed. Spenser. Environed he was with many foes. Shak. Environ me with darkness whilst I write. Donne.

To encompass with the arms extended or encircling; to measure by throwing the arms about; to span. [Obs.] Purchas.

a flake of snow, tallow, or fish. "Lottle flakes of scurf." Addison. Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat. Evelyn.

To surround; to encircle, or encompass. That Nyseian isle, Girt with the River Triton. Milton.

Encompassed with gold.

The fore parts of the wales, which encompass the bow of a vessel, and are fastened to the stem. [Written also harpins.] Totten.

That part of a bridle or halter which encompasses the head. Shak.

cific signification of in is situation or place with respect to surrounding, environment, encompassment, etc. It is used with verbs signifying being, resting, or moving within limits, or within circumstances or conditions of any kind conceived of as limiting, confining, or investing, either wholly or in part. In its di…

To surround; to shut in; to confine on all sides; to include; to shut up; to encompass; as, to inclose a fort or an army with troops; to inclose a town with walls. How many evils have inclosed me round! Milton.

The act of inclosing; the state of being inclosed, shut up, or encompassed; the separation of land from common ground by a fence.

See Encompass.

To surround or encompass as with a wreath. [Written also enwreathe.] Resplendent locks, inwreathed with beams. Milton.

To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island. [Poetic] Isled in sudden seas of light. Tennyson.

(e) To exert; as, to lay out all one's strength. -- To lay siege to. (a) To besiege; to encompass with an army. (b) To beset pertinaciously. -- To lay the course (Naut.), to sail toward the port intended without jibing. -- To lay the land (Naut.), to cause it to disappear below the horizon, by sailing away from it.…

To inclose with pales, or as with pales; to encircle; to encompass; to fence off. [Your isle, which stands] ribbed and paled in With rocks unscalable and roaring waters. Shak.

The limit or exterior line encompassing a place; a boundary; a confine; limit of jurisdiction or authority; -- often in the plural; as, the precincts of a state. "The precincts of light." Milton.

On every side of, so as to encompass or encircle; around; about; as, the people atood round him; to go round the city; to wind a cable round a windlass. The serpent Error twines round human hearts. Cowper. Round about, an emphatic form for round or about. "Moses . . . set them [The elders] round about the tabernacle."…

To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object; as, to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder. My right hand hath spanned the heavens. Isa. xiviii. 13.