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Envelope vs Embrace - What's the difference?

envelope | embrace |

As nouns the difference between envelope and embrace

is that envelope is a paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing while embrace is hug (noun); putting arms around someone.

As verbs the difference between envelope and embrace

is that envelope is (nonstandard) while embrace is to clasp in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.

envelope

English

Etymology 1

From the (etyl) enveloppe, from envelopper.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
    • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope , or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}
  • Something that envelops; a wrapping.
  • A bag containing the lifting gas of a balloon or airship; fabric that encloses the gas-bags of an airship.
  • *
  • (geometry) A mathematical curve, surface, or higher-dimensional object that is the tangent to a given family of lines, curves, surfaces, or higher-dimensional objects.
  • (electronics) A curve that bounds another curve or set of curves, as the modulation envelope of an amplitude-modulated carrier wave in electronics.
  • (music) The shape of a sound, which may be controlled by a synthesizer or sampler.
  • (computing) The information used for routing an email that is transmitted with the email but not part of its contents.
  • (biology) An enclosing structure or cover, such as a membrane.
  • (engineering) The set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively.
  • (astronomy) The nebulous covering of the head or nucleus of a comet; a coma.
  • An earthwork in the form of a single parapet or a small rampart, sometimes raised in the ditch and sometimes beyond it.
    • (Wilhelm)
    Derived terms
    * envelope detector * envelope paradox * envelope stuffer * padded envelope * push the envelope * return envelope * window envelope
    Synonyms
    * (something that envelops ): wrapper * (bag containing the lifting gas ): gasbag

    See also

    * *

    Etymology 2

    See (envelop).

    Verb

    (envelop)
  • (nonstandard)
    • ----

    embrace

    English

    Alternative forms

    * imbrace (obsolete)

    Verb

    (embrac)
  • To clasp in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I will embrace him with a soldier's arm, / That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
  • * Bible, Acts xx. 1
    • Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them.
  • (obsolete) To cling to; to cherish; to love.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • To seize eagerly, or with alacrity; to accept with cordiality; to welcome.
    • I wholeheartedly embrace the new legislation.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You embrace the occasion.
  • * John Locke
    • What is there that he may not embrace for truth?
  • To accept; to undergo; to submit to.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I embrace this fortune patiently.
  • To encircle; to encompass; to enclose.
  • * Dryden
    • Not that my song, in such a scanty space, / So large a subject fully can embrace .
  • * Denham
    • Low at his feet a spacious plain is placed, / Between the mountain and the stream embraced .
  • To enfold, to include (ideas, principles, etc.); to encompass.
    • Natural philosophy embraces many sciences.
  • To fasten on, as armour.
    • (Spenser)
  • (legal) To attempt to influence (a jury, court, etc.) corruptly.
    • (Blackstone)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Hug (noun); putting arms around someone.
  • *
  • *:a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ "Phil!  You!   Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.
  • (metaphorical) Enfolding, including.