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imbrue
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Imbrue

Imbrue \Im*brue"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Imbureed; p. pr. & vb. n. Imbureing.] [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).] To wet or moisten; to soak; to drench, especially in blood.

While Darwen stream, will blood of Scots imbrued.
--Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
imbrue

early 15c., "to soak, steep;" mid-15c., "to stain, soil," from Old French embreuvere "to moisten," a metathesis of embeuvrer, from em- (see im-) + -bevrer, ultimately from Latin bibere "to drink" (see imbibe). Or perhaps from Old French embroue "soiled," ultimately from boue "mud, dirt."

Wiktionary
imbrue

alt. To stain (''in, with,'' blood, slaughter, etc.). vb. To stain (''in, with,'' blood, slaughter, etc.).

WordNet
imbrue

v. permeate or impregnate; "The war drenched the country in blood" [syn: drench]

Usage examples of "imbrue".

The girl's mother was also very angry, and deemed her daughter's fall deserving of the most rigorous chastisement, but, when by one of Currado's chance words she divined the doom which he destined for the guilty pair, she could not reconcile herself to it, and hasted to intercede with her angry husband, beseeching him to refrain the impetuous wrath which would hurry him in his old age to murder his daughter and imbrue his hands in the blood of his servant, and vent it in some other way, as by close confinement and duress, whereby the culprits should be brought to repent them of their fault in tears.

Will you allow the lord protector to imbrue his hands in his brother's blood, and compel you to share his guilt?

Father’s departure from this plane was so brisk, so hot—leaving behind no physical remains—that it has been a sort of balm to my spirit to sit up with the King, night after night, imbrued in the royal gore, breathing it into my lungs, sopping it up with my flesh, and many other enjoyments besides, that I missed out on when my Father ascended .

I felt like a beetle-browed brute with a dripping knife and hands imbrued with innocent gore.

At other times, I thought, What if the young man who was with so much difficulty restrained from imbruing his hands in me, should yield to a constitutional impatience, or should mistake the time, and should think himself accredited to my heart and liver to-night, instead of to-morrow!