embody Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb represent in bodily form
    substantiate; incarnate; body forth.
    • He embodies all that is evil wrong with the system
    • The painting substantiates the feelings of the artist
  2. verb represent, as of a character on stage
    be; personify.
    • Derek Jacobi was Hamlet
  3. verb represent or express something abstract in tangible form
    • This painting embodies the feelings of the Romantic period

WordNet

Em*bod"y transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Embodied ; present participle & verbal noun Embodying
Definitions
  1. To form into a body; to invest with a body; to collect into a body, a united mass, or a whole; to incorporate; as, to embody one's ideas in a treatise. Written also imbody.
    Devils embodied and disembodied. Sir W. Scott.
    The soul, while it is embodied, can no more be divided from sin. South.
Em*bod"y intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To unite in a body, a mass, or a collection; to coalesce. Written also imbody.
    Firmly to embody against this court party. Burke.

Webster 1913