Other forms: embraced, embracing, embraces
To embrace someone is to put your arms right around them and hold them there. Two friends meeting at the arrivals gate, a mother embracing a child who has fallen over in the playground.
The bigger use has no arms in it at all: you embrace an idea, a change, a new way of working. Companies embrace technology, a village embraces a newcomer, a country embraces democracy. That sense means taking something up gladly, not merely putting up with it, so someone who embraces the plan is keen, not resigned. Embrace is also a noun: they stood in a long embrace on the platform. In everyday speech people hug each other; embrace is the word for writing, for ceremony, and for the moment you want to sound serious.
1verbembraceTo put your arms around someone and hold them.~10%
“He embraced his brother at the door and held on.”
2verbacceptTo take up an idea, change or belief gladly.~80%
“The school embraced the new timetable without a single complaint.”
3nounholdA hold with both arms around someone.~10%
“She pulled away from his embrace and picked up her bag.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Embrace came through Old French embracier, a verb that also meant to kiss, from a Latin form built on bracchium, arm. So the word is literally in-arms: to take someone into your arms. Middle English embracen carried an enormous range of senses, from clasping and welcoming to entangling, sheltering and even unlawfully influencing a jury. The modern split into arms and ideas is what is left after that pruning.
Latin
*imbracchiāre
Old French
embracer
Middle English
embracen — to clasp in one's arms, embrace; to reach out eagerly for, welcome; to enfold, entwine; to ensnare, entangle; to twist, wrap around; to gird, put on; to lace; to be in or put into bonds; to put a shield on the arm; to grasp (a shield or spear); to acquire, take hold of; to receive; to undertake; to affect, influence; to incite; to unlawfully influence a jury; to surround; to conceal, cover; to shelter; to protect; to comfort; to comprehend, understand
English, today
embrace
Built from
The verb is derived from Middle English embracen (“to clasp in one's arms, embrace; to reach out eagerly for, welcome; to enfold, entwine; to ensnare, entangle; to twist, wrap around; to gird, put on; to lace; to be in or put into bonds; to put a shield on the arm; to grasp (a shield or spear); to acquire, take hold of; to receive; to undertake; to affect, influence; to incite; to unlawfully influence a jury; to surround; to conceal, cover; to shelter; to protect; to comfort; to comprehend, understand”)embrace, embrase, enbrace, enbracen, enbrase, enbrass, imbrace, imbrase, inbracen, from Old French embracer, embracier (“to kiss”) (modern French embrasser (“to kiss; (dated) to embrace, hug”)), from Latin imbracchiāre, from in-) + bracchium (“arm”). The English word is analysable as em + brace. The noun is derived from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA