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Glite Dictionary
to wreathe with

to wreathe with

6.9
To place a ring of flowers or leaves around something to decorate it
  • phrasal verb
  • /riːð wɪð/
translation icon : adornar con
  • At the festival, the statue was wreathed with colorful ribbons and flowers to celebrate the occasion.
  • head wreathed with

Examples

  • The bride was wreathed with a beautiful garland made of fresh flowers during the ceremony.

  • Her black hair was wreathed with flowers, but her face was somber.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "Phoebe rushed into the room, her brown face wreathed with excitement."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Then children's heads were wreathed with flowers to signify them also as first fruits of Zionist practices to mold the land in the image of ideology.

    Academic text (1991)

  • "The vicar panted, leaning against a fat, painted pillar wreathed with a salamander motif."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • He wreathed the hemlock with an ancient string of lights, ran an extension from the doghouse, and lashed his little evergreen to the masthead.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The cowl fell over Amy's plain white street dress; her head was wreathed with rosebuds and daisies speckled with delicate dots of baby's breath.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Even now, I could picture the living room, the hallway, the staircase, the entire cottage lit with candles, wreathed with evergreen garlands, and decked with boughs of holly.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Every year, the entrance gate is wreathed with ivy and lights to welcome guests into the garden.

Synonyms

to garland
vsto wreathe with
1 5.7

To decorate something with a band of flowers or leaves

encircles by placing material in a circular arrangement rather than general decoration

Antonyms

to remove
∞ 1.5

To move something or someone away from a place

to uncover
37 2.7

Remove a cover to show what is under it

How Adorned

to garland
1 5.7
to wreathe with
6.9
to encircle
33 3.4
to ring
87 2.5

Surface Forms

wreathe with infinitive
wreathing with present participle
wreathes with third person singular
wreathed with past
wreathed with past participle

Morphology

wreathe + with

The meaning is directly compositional: 'wreathe' means to encircle or decorate and the preposition 'with' marks the instrument/material used, so 'wreathe with flowers' clearly means to adorn using flowers. This verb + with pattern is a standard, cross-linguistically common means of expressing instrument, making the MWE predictable for learners who know both constituents.

Etymology

Wreathe with comes from the simple image of making a round wreath of flowers or leaves and placing it around something. To wreathe is to wrap or cover something and with tells what you use, so it now means 'to decorate or surround something with flowers, leaves, or garlands'.