Definition of "embody"

The soul, while it is embodied, can no more be divided from sin.

1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727

Francesca shook her head as she answered, "Ah! expectations are such unreasonable things! It was impossible for even France to realise the dreams of youth and solitude! What ever embodies our idea of perfection?"

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 48

The generational shift Mr. Obama once embodied is, in fact, well under way, but it will not change Washington as quickly — or as harmoniously — as a lot of voters once hoped.

2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎

Given these entrenched ideological assumptions about the colonial order, it is no wonder that the state and those groups with an interest in the status quo viewed with suspicion and hostility any challenges to the fixed and "natural" boundaries between different sorts of people. These attitudes were perhaps best embodied by the so-called Two Republic system of Spanish America, a sprawling collection of royal legislation, local administrative policies, and informal practices, through which Spanish colonizers attempted to separate native peoples from other colonial subjects.

2009, Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew O'Hara, “Forward”, in Andrew B. Fisher, Matthew O'Hara, editors, Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America, page 4

With the exception of the Great Eastern Line, these embody the most complete systematisation of steam or diesel-operated main line services that has yet taken place in the country.

1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 590

For use in a nursery for cradling a baby to sleep, a baby cradler comprising, in combination, a stand embodying a mobile base, uprights attached to and rising perpendicularly from the base and having axially aligned bearings, [...]

1962, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, page 1261

Nay, my good friend—the people will remain / Embodied peaceably, till Parliament / Confirm the royal charter: tell your king so: / We will await the Charter's confirmation, / Meanwhile comporting ourselves orderly / As peaceful citizens, not risen in tumult, / But to redress their evils.

1794, Robert Southey, Wat Tyler. A Dramatic Poem. In Three Acts, London: […] [J. M‘Creery] for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], published 1817, Act III, pages 55–56

So when inclement winters vex the plain / With piercing frosts, or thick-descending rain, / To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, / With noise, and order, through the midway sky;

1715, Homer, Iliad, translated by Alexander Pope, Book III