▪ I. immerse, v.
(ɪˈmɜːs)
[f. L. immers-, ppl. stem of immergĕre to dip, plunge (see immerge).]
1. trans. To dip or plunge into a liquid; to put overhead in water, etc.; spec. to baptize by immersion.
| 1613 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (ed. 3), Immersed, dipped, or plunged. 1684–5 Boyle Min. Waters 83 Before the Water we immers'd it in was near boyling hot. 1772 Hutton Bridges 65 The thickness of the pier when dry; and..the thickness when the pier is immersed in water. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 573 The other index..lies in the tube of the spirit-thermometer immersed in the alcohol. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 354/2 Effected by immersing the meat in a solution of salt or pickle. |
b. transf. To plunge into, to bury, imbed, involve, or include in other things.
| 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth (1702) 10 Heterogeneous Bodies, which I found immersed and included in the Mass of this Sandstone. 1700 Dryden Theodore & Hon. 89 He stood, More than a mile immers'd within the wood. 1745 tr. Columella's Husb. iv. xxx, Cuttings, a foot and a half long, being immersed into the ground. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas ii. i. ¶3 We kenned the old cripple, immersed in an elbow chair. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xviii. 133 A traveller immersed to the waist in the jaws of a fissure. |
† c. fig. To cause to enter; to involve, enclose, include; to merge, to sink. Obs.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. viii. §1 Other formes..are more immersed into matter. Ibid. xvii. §9. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. xlix. 256 We ought..to immerse our private in the public safety. 1734 Watts Reliq. Juv. lxxiii, The bulk of mankind, whose souls are immersed in flesh and blood. |
2. transf. and fig. To plunge or sink into a (particular) state of body or mind; to involve deeply, to steep, absorb, in some action or activity. Chiefly pass. or refl.
| 1664 H. More Myst. Iniq. Apol. 534 It would engage them not to immerse themselves so much into the world, but to live holily. 1712 W. Rogers Voy. 54 The Portuguese immers'd themselves in Debt to the Company. 1790 Cowper Lett. 19 Apr., A youth immersed in Mathematics. 1856 Dove Logic Chr. Faith v. ii. 314 We are immersed in difficulties which we cannot explain. 1861 Buckle Civiliz. (1873) II. viii. 469 He was immersed in the most grovelling superstition. |
3. intr. for refl. To plunge oneself, sink, become absorbed. lit. and fig. Now rare or Obs.
| 1667 Decay Chr. Piety xix. ¶2 When they find any proneness to immerse in faction. 1739 tr. Algarotti on ‘Newton's Theory’ (1742) II. 191 Must it not decline towards this Medium and immerse into it? |
▪ II. † iˈmmerse, ppl. a. Obs.
[ad. L. immers-us, pa. pple. of immergĕre to immerge.]
Immersed.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §114–5 (Observ.), I practise, as I doe aduise..after long Inquiry of Things, Immerse in Matter, to interpose some Subject, which is Immateriate, or lesse Materiate. 1647 H. More Song of Soul To Rdr. 6/1 While I was so immerse in the inward sense and representation of things. |