encase
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
- encasement noun
Etymology
Origin of encase
Explanation
To encase something is to cover it or close it off, as if you were putting it in a shell, a coating, or a box. Some cheesemakers encase each wheel of cheese in wax. When you're packing your lunch, you might encase a brownie in wax paper, or encase a sandwich in a plastic container. A hug can encase you in warmth and affection, and the dark can even seem to encase you on a moonless night in the country. Encase combines the prefix en-, "make" or "put in," and case, "container" or "receptacle," from the Latin root capsa, "box."
Vocabulary lists containing encase
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Steel ribs encase the viewer, giving one the feeling of being in an upturned ship, as a soundtrack that ranges from gospel singing to mechanical clicks plays in the background.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025
She thought perhaps she could keep them, encase them in a necklace to wear in memory.
From Salon • Sep. 14, 2025
However, the quantum noise that lurks inside the vacuum tubes that encase LIGO's laser beams can alter the timing of the photons in the beams by minutely small amounts.
From Science Daily • Oct. 23, 2023
Older taxidermy specimens are frequently displayed, experts say, with museums taking precautions like using special vacuums to clean them or to encase them in glass.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 15, 2023
The teeth of a skate or dogfish cover the roof and floor of its mouth and pass at the lip into the flattened toothlike scales that encase most of its body.
From A Short History of the World by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
