entwine
English
Alternative forms
- (archaic) intwine
Etymology
From en- + twine (verb).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪnˈtwaɪn/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) enPR: ĭn-twīnʹ, IPA(key): /ɪnˈtwaɪn/
- Rhymes: -aɪn
- Hyphenation: en‧twine
Verb
entwine (third-person singular simple present entwines, present participle entwining, simple past and past participle entwined)
- To twist or twine around something (or one another).
- 1815 September 10 – December 14, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude”, in Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude: And Other Poems, London: […] Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; and Carpenter and Son, […] [b]y S. Hamilton, […], published 1816, OCLC 1935175, page 24:
- Twilight, ascending slowly from the east, / Entwin'd in duskier wreaths her braided locks / O'er the fair front and radiant eyes of day; […]
- 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:
- Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.
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Usage notes
Particularly used in attributive form entwined.
Often used interchangeably with intertwine, with minor usage distinctions. In symmetric sense of two things twining around each other, such as the branches of two trees, narrower intertwine may be preferred, but these are not strictly distinguished. In asymmetric sense of one thing twined in or around another – rather than mutually – such as a vine twined around a tree (but tree not twined around the vine), entwined is preferred.
Synonyms
- (twine around one another): betwine, intertwine
Derived terms
- entwinement (noun)
- entwining (noun)
- entwining (adj)
Translations
twist or twine
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