imbrue
/ɪmˈbɹuː/ verb
Forms imbrues imbruing imbrued embrue
- verb (transitive) To stain [with in or with ‘blood, slaughter, etc.’]. “My hands were imbrued in his blood.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English embrewen, from Old French *embrever (whence Middle French embreuver), metathetic variant of embevrer (“to imbibe, steep, penetrate, soak”) (with same stem variation found in French abreuver and beuverie), from Vulgar Latin imbiberāre.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Cf. OF. embruer, also embruver, embreuver, embrever, to give to drink, soak (see pref. En-, 1, 1st In-, and Breverage), but also OE. enbrewen, enbrowen, to stain, soil (cf. Brewis).]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “imbrue”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details