enwind means to wind around (something); to encircle or wrap up. It carries an Arena rating of 1660, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, enwind ranks #522 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,616 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,635 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #4,325 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
Why “enwind” is a great word
To coil or wrap something, especially in a sinuous, encircling manner. From the prefix en- (meaning 'to put into or on, to cause to be') and wind (in the sense 'to coil or twist'), first attested in the 1590s. Unlike entwine, which implies the braiding of two or more strands, or encircle, which suggests a simple, geometric ring, to enwind is a solitary, deliberate act of spiral embrace. It is the ivy enwinding the oak, the serpent enwinding the staff, or the final, clinging tendril of fog enwinding the lamppost—a slow, possessive conquest that binds through patient, continuous motion.
Etymology
From en- + wind.
verb
- To wind around (something); to encircle or wrap up.e.g.“Love, the third,
Between us, in the circle of his arms
Enwound us both; […]” — 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Gardener’s Daughter; or, The Pictures”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 29:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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