impearl

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ pearl.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l

Verb

impearl (third-person singular simple present impearls, present participle impearling, simple past and past participle impearled)

1. (transitive, poetic) To form into pearls, or make pearly.
   • 1640 (first publication), Thomas Carew, “Obsequies to the Lady Anne Hay”, in Poems, with a Maske, […], 3rd edition, London: […] H[umphrey] M[oseley] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Martin, […], published 1651, →OCLC, page 91:

     Virgins of equall birth, [...] / Shall draw thy picture, and record thy life; / One ſhall enſphere thine eyes, another ſhall / Impearl thy teeth[,] a third thy white and ſmall / Hand ſhall beſnow, a fourth incarnadine / Thy roſie cheek, [...]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book CXLII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 743–744:

     Or Starrs of Morning, Dew-Drops, which the Sun / Impearls on every leaf and every flouer.

2. (transitive, poetic) To decorate as if with pearls.
   • 1722 October 10, Alexander Pope, “Letters To the Honourable Robert Digby From Mr Pope”, in Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence For Thirty Years, from 1704 to 1734 […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] E[dmund] Curll, […], published 1735, page 114:

     The Dews of the Morning impearl every Thorn, and ſcatter Diamonds on the verdant Mantle of the Earth.

   • 1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Future and Past”, in Poems. […], new edition, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 362:

     Then I, long tried / By natural ills, received the comfort fast, / While budding at thy sight, my pilgrim's staff / Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled.

   • 1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Love in Exile. Song X.] ‘On Life’s Long Round’.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 177:

     On life's long round by chance I found / A dell impearled with dew, / Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground, / Lent to the earth heaven's native hue / Of holy blue.

Translations

to decorate with pearls

• French: emperler (fr)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “impearl”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Palmeri, impaler, lempira, palmier, premail, premial