Sometimes I squeeze my body like crossing my arms and hunching my shoulders in cold weather.
Is there any word which I can use to describe this activity?
Thanks.
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I think you can say you are bracing yourself.– Damkerng T.Commented Dec 26, 2013 at 10:48
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1@DamkerngT. - I think you mean "embracing yourself". One might also say hugging myself, but I think this would most often be described as wrapping my arms around myself.– J.R. ♦Commented Dec 26, 2013 at 11:38
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@J.R. Yes. These two words confuse me very often. Thank you.– Damkerng T.Commented Dec 26, 2013 at 11:53
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1@Damk - Although it's worth mentioning that one can brace himself against the elements (meaning bad weather), but that's usually said in a figurative sense.– J.R. ♦Commented Dec 26, 2013 at 11:59
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1 Answer
The word I thought of is huddled, as in, "I was huddled in the cold."
The word doesn't necessarily mean that you've wrapped your arms around yourself (I usually imagine someone hunched over a little bit, with their shoulders up), but self-embracing woudln't be necessarily be excluded, either. NOAD defines the word as:
huddle (verb)
crowd together; nestle closely : they huddled together for warmth.
• curl one's body into a small space : the watchman remained, huddled under his canvas shelter.
Another interesting aspect of the word huddled is how it can use different prepositions:
It think huddled in the cold and huddled against the cold pretty much mean the same thing. I don't usually wrap my arms around myself when I'm huddling in the wind, but someone else might.
For what it's worth, when I searched for images of huddled in the cold, I found this one:
They don't have their arms around themselves, but they are using their arms while attempting to stay warm.