This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2551.
Embrace both meanings of this useful English word.
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Did you know that the word embrace can mean a few different things in English?
Today, find out the nuances and how to use them in different contexts.
Plus, how are stances on aging and beauty different in regions of the US?
Find out today.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Awesome, Michelle.
How's everything going for you?
Everything is good over here.
Lindsay, have you embraced wide leg pants yet?
I have not, Michelle.
I can't get there.
I just can't get there.
I don't think they're flattering on me.
And nope, I'm still into the straight leg.
Not skinny so much, but straight leg all the way.
Yeah.
Nice.
Nice.
Yeah.
It's funny.
My mom actually, she was on a vacation and she saw everybody was wearing wide leg pants.
And then she told me, I think I need to I think I need to do it.
So now she wears a lot of wide-leg pants.
That's so funny.
Very cool, very hip, very trendy.
Your mom's cool?
I do have some wide-leg pants, but sometimes I feel really good about them and then sometimes I feel I don't know about this.
Yeah.
Usually I'm really late to trends.
I didn't adopt skinny jeans until the last three years of skinny jeans.
And now you can't get out.
What are we getting into today?
Yeah, today we're going to talk about this word embrace, because this came up in an episode I did with Aubrey a little bit ago.
It was episode 2537.
It was cozy up with these holiday phrasal verbs.
So guys, head on over to that after this if you're interested in listening.
So we were talking about the word.
Well, it actually came up in a totally random way because Aubrey was saying she doesn't like those blow up um decorations right, um and yeah.
And then she said oh, she should probably embrace them.
And i kind of made a joke because i'm like that sounds like oh, you're saying oh, i should go up and hug them.
And because if we she meant embrace is like oh, i should embrace them, i should accept them, i should enjoy them yes, um.
But something about it made me think that she was saying oh, I should go up to them and I should hug them.
Yeah, that's true.
Because there are a couple different meanings of embrace, right?
Yeah.
So we decided this would be a really good episode topic for the future.
So we're going to go and talk about that today.
I love it.
I love it.
But before we get into it, Michelle, I want to remind our listeners, guys, if you want to make 2026 your year for vocabulary, the number one way to consume all years English is actually inside our app, our iOS or Android app.
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Yeah.
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There's just really a lot of benefits to having this app.
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All right.
Awesome.
Let's break it down, Michelle, then.
So what are the meanings of embrace?
OK, so, yeah.
So one would be to hug or to somehow put your arms around something more literal.
Yeah.
And that's what the joke was I was making was because it sounded like she should run up to these decorations and hug them.
But that's not what she meant.
But it's actually a pretty funny thought, right?
It is.
It is.
I'm envisioning Aubrey doing that right now.
But it's a more formal way to say hug, right?
Embrace.
Yeah, it is.
You might hear it in like a fancy romance novel or something or read it.
For example, the two lovers embraced in the film after they had a fight yeah, um.
Or the siblings embraced after, after their argument, but only because their dad made them.
Yeah, i mean really, we nine times out of ten.
You would just say hug, wouldn't you exactly?
Yeah yeah, i mean embraces, like i feel.
I feel like embrace is like a dramatic hug, Yeah.
Like a very dramatic hug.
Like I think, yeah, this one about the two lovers embracing, right?
You might hear it in songs too.
Instead of the word hug in a song, hug is kind of unceremonious, right?
Embrace is more likely to be used in songs and poetry and when we're elevating an experience, right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
So I mean yeah, other ways to say embrace would.
It could be hug, like we said, or cuddle is also kind of an embrace.
Like embrace doesn't have to be about like, oh, I'm giving you a hug, right?
An embrace, it's like this all encompassing, like I'm embracing you.
Maybe I'm snuggling with you.
Maybe I'm whatever.
I'm holding you.
So yeah, hug, cuddle, hold, other words you would hear.
Yeah.
Yeah, love that.
So that's the first meaning of embrace.
But then what else, Michelle?
We're totally changing the meaning here.
Yes.
Yeah, this is really interesting.
So embrace can also mean to take something on, right?
Like a new idea, a change.
This is the example, Lindsay, when I asked you about the wide lead pants?
Are you, have you embraced them?
Have you like adopted them into your life?
Are you starting to wear them?
Do you like them?
Are you enthusiastic about them?
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, for example, a sample sentence could be I wouldn't say I've quite embraced the idea of wearing sneakers with a dress, but I'm coming around to it because that's kind of trendy too.
Right.
So yeah.
Sneakers with everything.
And also, like A lot of times you'll see, even at weddings now, like men will wear like sneakers, really cool sneakers with suits or tuxes.
Yep.
You see that sometimes at conferences weddings, formal events yes, or even i see that even, like in congress, sometimes i see well, i mean, there are some congress people that wear sweatshirts, which i'm against that, by the way.
I'm very like, wear a suit, you're representing the american people like, but sometimes you see congress people in a suit and then they have nice sneakers on right.
So i'm less against that, but i'm really against the hoodie thing.
I'm just i'm not feeling it.
I'm not feeling it.
I understand that.
I understand that.
Um, Or here's another example.
It took a while for my family to embrace not using our devices at dinner, but now things are so much better and we connect more.
Yes.
Nice.
Okay.
Love it.
Good examples.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, Michelle.
So there could be other ways to say embrace this idea of taking on something.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What would they be?
Yeah, so for that usage we were just talking about.
To take something on the idea of the wide leg pants
So I would say accept or adopt or even endorse.
It's like, yes, I give this my thumbs up, right?
Sure, yeah, that could work.
I like that.
So where do we take this then?
Yeah, so I mean there's also like this idea of having a similar definition to the second one, right?
So to accept something. in a, you know, an excited way.
So I try to embrace all the little moments in my life, not just the big exciting one.
So this is kind of a third definition here.
Um, I'm, I'm excited about something.
I'm enthusiastic about something.
I take it in, right.
Um, being present during like fully be present for something.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
Uh, or what's another example.
You could say I'm going to embrace my bad eyesight and get super cool and fashionable glasses.
So this idea of maybe there's some kind of disability or, like you just have less, less keen eyesight or hearing or something,
And you're going to like, you're going to accept that, but then use it as kind of an advantage, kind of
Yeah.
You're like enthusiastically accepting something, right?
Okay.
Like maybe I have you know, my eyesight doesn't great but now I get to go get cool glasses right yeah exactly, yeah.
So that would be kind of this idea of like welcoming something or going for something, or it could also also accept in a way yeah, love it so.
Embrace is a powerful word, but we have to know again, like we said in the other episode connotation.
We have to know exactly what the use is here, right?
So let's take a look at a role play and we'll see what we can learn here.
So here Michelle, we are shopping together.
Are we shopping at the mall or are we just shopping like in a downtown space?
Let's put us in a downtown space.
Okay.
I like that better.
All right.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Okay.
So my boss is trying to get us all to embrace this new system, but it's so hard.
Change is definitely tough, but you might as well accept it because it's not going to change.
That's true.
Oh, oh no.
I have a few grays.
Look.
Oh, I have some too.
We just have to embrace it.
I'll accept it, but I won't welcome it.
That's an interesting topic, right?
So there's, you know, like two camps when it comes to hair going gray, especially for women.
Some people will grow out their gray is the expression that we use.
Grow out your gray.
They'll just let their hair go.
And then other people will dye their hair right away when the gray starts to take over.
Right.
And it's always, yeah, it's probably a hotly debated issue.
Yeah.
And a personal decision.
It says a lot about identity.
There's a lot there, Michelle.
There's a lot there.
There definitely is.
That'd be a good whole topic for another day.
Really would.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cultural stuff here too.
Definitely.
Yep.
So let's go through the words, Michelle.
What did we say?
So I said, my boss is trying to get us all to embrace this new system, but it's so hard.
So we don't mean hug or hold.
We mean, you know, to like adopt it, to accept it, accept, to learn, to be willing to use it.
Right.
And then I said yeah, change is tough, but you might as well accept it because?
So now I'm using a synonym for that.
Accept it because it's just not going to change.
Meaning you have, it's not going to go anywhere.
It's not going to go away.
This new system.
Yeah.
Maybe there's like some kind of technology or something.
Right.
Yeah.
It's like, don't fight it.
It's, it's almost like then it's if you don't accept something sometimes, then you're, you build up a lot of feelings about it and it's just not worth it because it can make things worse actually and harder for you.
Um, And then I said, oh no, I have a few grays.
Look, cause we're shopping.
So we passed a mirror and you said, oh, I have some too.
We just have to embrace it.
Right.
And so we just have to accept it.
Right.
We just have to accept it, but like also maybe like be okay with it and make it positive.
Make it a positive thing.
Um, then you said I'll accept it, but I won't welcome it.
So I'll accept it, but I'm not going to be happy about it, basically.
Yeah, for sure.
That's a great common conversation between friends in their 30s, maybe late 30s, 40s, right?
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Also like gray hair or even plastic surgery, because everybody just decides, like how they're going to age.
Are they going to just let it happen?
Are they going to do everything they can to try and prevent it?
Oh, for sure.
And this is where you get into regional differences, cultural differences within the US.
And I've noticed big differences between kind of where I grew up in New England, the stances towards like plastic surgery and like changing the face and the hair, versus maybe in the West, in California, people I know in Los Angeles there's a big cultural gap between the East Coast and the West Coast.
It's very broad to say that, but So pay attention to the nuances there.
It's fascinating.
Yeah.
For sure.
Really interesting.
All right, Lindsay.
This was really fun.
I'm glad we talked about this today.
And guys, we'll see you on the next episode.
All right, Michelle.
Talk soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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