imbrue
Americanverb (used with object)
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to stain.
He refused to imbrue his hands with the blood of more killing.
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to impregnate or imbue (usually followed by with orin ).
They are imbrued with the follies of youth.
verb
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to stain, esp with blood
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to permeate or impregnate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of imbrue
1400–50; late Middle English enbrewen < Middle French embreuver to cause to drink in, soak, drench < Vulgar Latin *imbiberāre, derivative of Latin imbibere to imbibe
Explanation
To imbrue is to stain or saturate, the way water imbrues your jeans when you walk down the street in a rainstorm. Use this old-fashioned, literary verb when you need a fancy way to say "dampen" or "permeate." It's also frequently used in literature to specifically refer to things stained with blood: "The battle will only serve to imbrue their swords with blood." The word comes from the Old French embruer, "to moisten."
Vocabulary lists containing imbrue
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.
See Examples For:
The hazards attending my re-entrance were to be boldly encountered, and the torments of unsatisfied thirst were to be patiently endured, rather than imbrue my hands in the blood of my fellowmen.
From Edgar Huntly or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker by Charles Brockden Brown
Men generally do not specially desire to imbrue their hands in the blood of other men.
From The Life of Cicero Volume One by Anthony Trollope
He took a comprehensive glance about the room; then, extracting a dish from the closet, proceeded to imbrue his hands in the strawberries' blood.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 36, October, 1860 by Various
What! shall we have incision? shall we imbrue?
From King Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare
The citizen of heaven knew that it was his duty to 'hunt Sarmatians' on earth, though he was not obliged to imbrue his hands with 'Cæsarism.'
From Outspoken Essays by William Ralph Inge
There is not perhaps a single riot, a single religious outrage in which the middle-classes were not formerly imbrued, because these middle classes were then the mob; but reason and time will have changed them.
From Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire
Creditors stormed at us from every side, urged on by lawyers who imbrued their hands in our misery.
From Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel translated and annotated by Emilie Michaelis ... and H. Keatley Moore. by Emilie Michaelis
It had stripped its mistress clean of all feeble accomplishments; her hands were imbrued neither with ink nor with water-color.
From The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James
A thread imbrued in some of this matter was sent to me, and with it two children were inoculated, whose cases I shall transcribe from my notes.
From The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) by Various
Lo, Phædra, Procris, Eriphyle there, Baring the breast by filial hands imbrued, Evadne, and Pasiphaë, and fair Laodamia in the crowd he viewed, 523 And Cæneus, maid, then man, and now a maid renewed.
From The Æneid of Virgil Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor by Edward Fairfax Taylor
Barnwell, instead of imbruing his hands in innocent blood, even "in jest," became the most active agent in rescuing his hapless audience from their perilous situation.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 10 by Various
In strongly asserting this traditional law, the Inquisitors imagined that they thereby freed themselves from all responsibility, and kept from imbruing their hands in bloodshed.
From The Inquisition A Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Power of the Church by Bertrand L. (Bertrand Louis) Conway
Now she saw that the woman’s oily diplomacy was only for public use, and that all the while she was imbruing the minds of the little children with the dye of her own thoughts.
From The Cup of Fury A Novel of Cities and Shipyards by Henry Raleigh
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