To seal up or close completely, especially by sewing shut or binding tightly.
From en- + seel (from Old French seeler, meaning to sew shut or close the eyes of a falcon). The term originates from falconry, where seeling meant sewing a hawk's eyelids partially closed to tame it.
Falconers in medieval times used 'enseel' to describe the practice of temporarily sewing hawk eyelids shut during training—a surprisingly gentle way to calm wild birds before they were ready to fly.
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