embrace
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
to take or clasp in the arms; press to the bosom; hug.
-
to take or receive gladly or eagerly; accept willingly.
to embrace an idea.
-
to avail oneself of.
to embrace an opportunity.
- Synonyms:
- seize
-
to adopt (a profession, a religion, etc.).
to embrace Buddhism.
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to take in with the eye or the mind.
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to encircle; surround; enclose.
a secret garden embraced by wild shrubs.
-
to include or contain.
An encyclopedia embraces a great number of subjects.
- Antonyms:
- exclude
verb (used without object)
noun
-
embraces
plural
verb (used with object)
verb
-
(also intr) (of a person) to take or clasp (another person) in the arms, or (of two people) to clasp each other, as in affection, greeting, etc; hug
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to accept (an opportunity, challenge, etc) willingly or eagerly
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to take up (a new idea, faith, etc); adopt
to embrace Judaism
-
to comprise or include as an integral part
geology embraces the science of mineralogy
-
to encircle or enclose
noun
-
the act of embracing
-
euphemistic (often plural) sexual intercourse
verb
Synonym Usage
See include.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of embrace1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French embracier, equivalent to em- em- 1 + bracier “to embrace,” derivative of brace “the two arms”; see brace
Origin of embrace2
First recorded in 1420–1475; late Middle English: “to influence, prejudice, bribe (a jury),” perhaps the same word as embrace 1
Explanation
To embrace something is to welcome it with open arms, hold, hug, accept completely. You might embrace your sweetheart, or even changes in technology. Embrace is from the French verb embrasser, which started out meaning "to clasp in the arms" (but now includes kissing). You embrace someone by giving her a giant hug, and when you embrace a new idea, it's like your brain gives it a hug. The noun and verb form are similar: If you embrace someone who isn't your sweetheart, you might get caught in an embrace. In Henry IV, Shakespeare writes about a really, really tight embrace: "I will embrace him with a soldier's arm/That he shall shrink under my courtesy."
Vocabulary lists containing embrace
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Of Mice and Men
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"Of Mice and Men"
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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:
Utopia exists between the care and the kisses and the how you doin’s, it becomes flesh and bone in the embrace of full body hugs and smiles so wide they could devour the sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
They believe in a higher power or spiritual force, but don’t typically embrace a more personalized belief that the God of the Bible determines the course of their lives and is active in human affairs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
But personally, Calvert has continued to embrace the president.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Young people embrace an ideology that goes against everything they actually believe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Let us embrace that element of liberty as we forgive our enemies as we forgive ourselves.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Dostoevsky follows the narrator over four nights and a morning during which he ceases living in his imagination and embraces reality for the first time.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
These videos depict a fun-loving land that welcomes foreigners and embraces friends at 250 years old despite all the advertised assaults on its social fabric.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Ultimately, they conclude, finding a new constitutional meaning that actually embraces the public’s true understanding of the document requires returning to our old understanding.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
He hopes his fan base embraces a life of reading.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
There were no embraces, no joy at all.
From "Lupita Mañana" by Patricia Beatty
No industrialist embraced the soybean more enthusiastically than Henry Ford.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Bonino met a leading women's rights advocate, embraced civil disobedience and began accompanying women to a Florentine abortion clinic.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
“I was an indie filmmaker that was compelled to tell that story. And then audiences embraced that story and that story took off in a way that was unexpected and surprising even for me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
New York City’s critics and tastemakers, who had steadily pilloried the World Trade Center, not only embraced Windows on the World—they anointed it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
For the first time, willingly, she’d embraced her lineage as a child of Pluto.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
Instead, the community became more open to the possibility without embracing it outright.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026
The extensively engineered retaining wall and thoughtful landscaping transformed the property into a series of expansive outdoor living spaces designed for entertaining, decompressing, and fully embracing the indoor-outdoor lifestyle.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
Beautiful Love, external, co-written with Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, is a soaring hymn to embracing your flaws and making peace with life's highs and lows.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
But when I think about that moment now, it seems clear that she was embracing another familiar position:
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
He scrambled for a foothold and stood, waiting for his breath to return, both arms embracing the tree.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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.
