▪ I. bathe, v.
(beɪð)
Forms: 1 baðian, beðian, 2–4 baðien, beþien, baþe(n, beðe(n, 4 bathie, -ey, 5–6 bath, 5– bathe.
[Common Teutonic: OE. baðian, also bęðian = ON. baða, OHG. badôn, bathôn, mod.G. baden, Du. baden:—OTeut. baþ-ôn, f. baþo-(m) bath n.1 The difference of vowel and consonant between bathe and bath (beɪð, bɑːθ, -æ-) has been developed since the OE. period, through the additional syllable and open vowel of ba-ðian; cf. grass, graze, staff, stave.]
I. trans. (Now mostly reflexive or passive.)
1. To immerse, as in a bath: a. lit. To immerse (the body, or any part of it) in water or other liquid, for the sake of some effect (e.g. health, warmth, cleansing) promoted by the action of the liquid.
| a 1200 Moral Ode 245 Þer is bernunde pich hore saule to baþien inne. 1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. vi. ix. (1495) 195 The moder batheth the chylde. c 1400 Mandeville x. 112 Gabrielles welle, where our Lord was wont to bathe him. 1611 Bible Lev. xv. 5 [He] shall wash his clothes, and bathe himselfe in water. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 437 Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers, Bath'd Thir downie Brest. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 205 He has the convenience of sometimes bathing himself. |
b. To immerse in other elements or substances, e.g. sand, fire.
| c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 447 Faire in the sond, to bathe hir merily, Lith Pertelot..Agayn the sonne. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. Frontisp., The Norman Leopards bath'd in Gules. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. i. (1866) 16 The later martyr bathes his fingers in the flames. |
c. To plunge, or dip, without reference to the action of the liquid.
| a 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 211 [Jonah says] Berez me to þe borde, & baþeþes me þer-oute. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 82 In flud Trinacrian thy great oars must deeplye be bathed. |
2. To apply water or other liquid to anything so as to wet it all over, or moisten it copiously; to lave, perfuse, suffuse, wet, moisten: a. literally.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 206 Ðonne is sio beðianne mid hatan wætre. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2447 First .ix. niȝt ðe liches beðen, And smeren. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 140 We come to the gates..all bathed in rayne and frosen with yce. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. ii. 169 Till we haue..bath'd thy growing, with our heated bloods. 1652 Culpepper Eng. Physic. 6 To bath the place grieved..for the Inflammation. 1877 Chavasse Adv. to Mother §290 Well bathe the eye with vinegar and water. |
b. said of the action of a river or the sea upon the adjacent banks or land.
| 1591 Spenser Bellay's Vis. ix, A water, whose out gushing flood Ran bathing all the creakie shore aflot. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 52 The River which passes under it bathes a meadow. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xix. 537 The river bathed the foot of the walls. 1872 Bagehot Physics & Pol. 85 Groups of islands..bathed by the same oceans. |
c. said of the action of tears, perspiration, or any secretion, in flowing over and wetting the body or its parts.
| 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 32 His eyes toward heaven, and his face bathed with teares. 1718 Pope Iliad xxiii. 18 Tears bathe their arms, and tears the sands bedew. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1818) 166 The laborer, bathed in sweat, drops the scythe. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 89 Bathing in tears..thousands of worthy men and worthy families. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. vi. 87 When bathed in the secretion. |
d. (Inverted construction.)
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. vi. 100 Had I this cheeke To bathe my lips vpon. |
3. The phrase ‘to bathe in blood’ includes and often blends 1 and 2, and is generally used fig. to express the great quantity of blood shed.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 2708 Mony pencel god, Quyk, y-bathed in heorte blod. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1248 Þay..Baþed barnes in blod & her brayn spylled. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 3100 Ro[land] ..baþede is swerd in hure blod. c 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon viii. 79, I will bathe my poniard in the bosom of an Earl. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 106 Let vs bathe our hands in Cæsars blood Vp to the Elbowes. 1647 W. Browne Polex. ii. 306 A tyrant which took pleasure in bathing himselfe in humane blood. 1836 Thirlwall Greece II. xvi. 377 His plan..would have bathed Sparta in blood. |
4. a. To suffuse, envelope, or encompass, like the air or the sunshine.
| 1816 J. Wilson City of Plague ii. ii. 136 A stream of sunshine bathing The bright moss-roses. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xiii. 164 Heavenly glory seemed to bathe her from head to foot. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 272 The Bay of Baffin, bathed in foggy darkness. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 88 An ocean of air bathing the entire earth. |
b. said of mental influences.
| 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 1490 Bathyd with blysse, embraced with comfort. 1535 Coverdale Isa. lxiii. 6 And thus haue I troden downe the people in my wrath, and bathed them in my displeasure. 1857 Emerson Poems 8 The babe..Lies bathed in joy. |
II. intr. (from refl. use of 1.)
5. a. lit. To take a bath, to plunge or immerse oneself in water or other liquid, so as to enjoy its influence; in earlier usage also, to lie or remain so immersed, to bask.
| c 1200 Moral Ode (245) in E.E.P. (1862) 29 Pich þat eure wealð · þat sculle baþien inne þo þe ladde vuel lif. c 1275 Death in O.E. Misc. 180 In ful a bitter bað bathien ich schal naked. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. iii. xxiv. (1495) 73 They that bathen temperatly in hote water. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 660 Vex'd Scylla, bathing in the Sea. 1765 Cowper Lett. 24 June, It is a noble stream to bathe in. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. v. (1875) 89 The princess came down..to bathe in the sacred river. |
b. in various transferred and figurative senses: see the transitive uses above, 3-4.
| 1576 Ld. Vaux in Parad. Dainty Dev., He most of all doth bathe in bliss. 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. ii. iii, Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods. 1656 Trapp Comm. Mark i. 35 Shall Christians be bathing in their beds on their Lord's day? c 1720 S. Wesley Eupolis 40 The feathered souls, that swim the air, And bathe in liquid ether there. 1855 F. W. Faber Growth in Holiness xi. 169 Youth..bathing in devotional sweetness. |
▪ II. bathe, n.
(beɪð)
[f. prec. vb.]
An act of bathing (in the intr. sense of bathe).
Of modern origin, and used instead of bath n.1, sense 1, to exclude the suggestion of other senses.
| 1831 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 230 A two hours' walk, and a bathe in the Greta. 1861 Sat. Rev. 30 Nov. 565 A mountain stream in which the happy party took every day their morning bathe. |