enchase

English

Etymology

From Middle English enchacen, enchasen, from Middle French enchasser.

Verb

enchase (third-person singular simple present enchases, present participle enchasing, simple past and past participle enchased)

1. To set (a gemstone, etc.) into.
   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Oberons Palace”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 193:

     The nails faln off by VVhit-flavves: Art's / VViſe hand enchaſing here thoſe vvarts, / VVhich vve to others (from our ſelves) / Sell, and brought hither by the Elves.

   • 1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome:

     The woods before and behind me made a square frame of silence, and I was enchased here in the clearing, thinking of all things.

2. (figurative) To be a setting for.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 177:

     My ragged rimes are all too rude and bace, / Her heauenly lineaments for to enchace.

3. To decorate with jewels, or with inlaid ornament.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     Thy Garments ſhall be made of Medean ſilke, / Enchaſt with precious iewels of mine owne: […]

4. To cut or carve, as with a weapon.
   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Twelfth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC, page 224:

     They tooke their ſwords againe, and each enchaſte / Deepe wounds in the ſoft fleſh of his ſtrong foe […]

Anagrams

• achenes