envelop
/ɪnˈvɛləp
/ /ɛnˈvɛləp/verb (envelops, enveloping, enveloped) [with object]
Wrap up, cover, or surround completely: a figure enveloped in a black cloak figurative a feeling of despair enveloped him...
- She turned the knob and was enveloped in a shroud of fetid air as the door swung open.
- Anyway my point is it's what's in the mind that counts, and I genuinely believe the essence of the real person is enveloped in their mind and personality and not their physical capability.
- My eyes snap open, yet I'm still enveloped in darkness.
Synonyms
surround, cover, enfold, enwrap, blanket, swathe, swaddle, wrap (up), engulf, encircle, encompass, cocoon, sheathe, encase, enclose;
cloak, conceal, hide, obscure, cover (up), screen, shield, mask, veil, shroud
literary mantle, enshroud
rare obnubilate
Usage
Envelop is a verb, stressed on the second syllable and meaning ‘wrap completely’. The noun meaning ‘paper container for a letter’ is envelope, stressed on the first syllable.
Derivatives
envelopment
/ /ɛnˈvɛləpm(ə)nt / noun ...- So there is an envelopment of law around the exercise of these tribunals.
- The manual, returning to key concepts from late - 19 th-century German military thought, promoted the superiority of the offensive and underscored the advantages of envelopments, particularly when combined with frontal assaults.
- At another point, he notes that he has been treating the ‘interplay of the ethical and the aesthetic as a series of envelopments and overlappings whereby now the one field, now the other achieves dominance’.
Origin
Late Middle English (formerly also as invelop(e)): from Old French envoluper, from en- 'in' + a second element (also found in develop) of unknown origin.