Adjacent Words

Balm definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

B'ALM, n. bam.
1. The sap or juice of trees or shrubs remarkable odoriferous or aromatic.
2. Any fragrant or valuable ointment.
3. Anything which heals, or which soothes or mitigates pain.
4. In botany, the name of several plants, particularly of the genus Melissa. They are aromatic and used as corroborants.
Balm of Gilead. A plant of the genus Amyris. Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and from this plant is obtained the balm of Gilead of the shops, or balsam of Mecca or of Syria. It has a yellowish or greenish color, a warm bitterish aromatic taste, and an acidulous fragrant smell. It is valued as an odoriferous unguent, and cosmetic, by the Turks, who possess the country of its growth, and hence it is adulterated for market.
B'ALM, v.t. To anoint with balm, or with any thing medicinal.
2. To soothe; to mitigate; to assuage.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of various aromatic resinous substances used for healing and soothing
2: semisolid preparation (usually containing a medicine) applied externally as a remedy or for soothing an irritation [syn: ointment, unction, unguent, balm, salve]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English basme, baume, from Anglo-French, from Latin balsamum balsam Date: 13th century 1. a balsamic resin; especially one from small tropical evergreen trees (genus Commiphora of the family Burseraceae) 2. an aromatic preparation (as a healing ointment) 3. any of several aromatic plants of the mint family; especially lemon balm 4. a spicy aromatic odor 5. a soothing restorative agency

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 an aromatic ointment for anointing, soothing, or healing. 2 a fragrant and medicinal exudation from certain trees and plants. 3 a healing or soothing influence or consolation. 4 an Asian and N. African tree yielding balm. 5 any aromatic herb, esp. one of the genus Melissa. 6 a pleasant perfume or fragrance. Phrases and idioms: balm of Gilead (cf. Jer.
8:22) 1 a a fragrant resin formerly much used as an unguent. b a plant of the genus Commiphora yielding such resin. 2 the balsam fir or poplar. Etymology: ME f. OF ba(s)me f. L balsamum BALSAM

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balm Balm, v. i. To anoint with balm, or with anything medicinal. Hence: To soothe; to mitigate. [Archaic] --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Balm Balm, n. [OE. baume, OF. bausme, basme, F. baume, L. balsamum balsam, from Gr. ?; perhaps of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. b[=a]s[=a]m. Cf. Balsam.] 1. (Bot.) An aromatic plant of the genus Melissa. 2. The resinous and aromatic exudation of certain trees or shrubs. --Dryden. 3. Any fragrant ointment. --Shak. 4. Anything that heals or that mitigates pain. ``Balm for each ill.'' --Mrs. Hemans. Balm cricket (Zo["o]l.), the European cicada. --Tennyson. Balm of Gilead (Bot.), a small evergreen African and Asiatic tree of the terebinthine family (Balsamodendron Gileadense). Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and from this tree is obtained the balm of Gilead of the shops, or balsam of Mecca. This has a yellowish or greenish color, a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste, and a fragrant smell. It is valued as an unguent and cosmetic by the Turks. The fragrant herb Dracocephalum Canariense is familiarly called balm of Gilead, and so are the American trees, Populus balsamifera, variety candicans (balsam poplar), and Abies balsamea (balsam fir).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(balms) 1. Balm is a sweet-smelling oil that is obtained from some tropical trees and used to make creams that heal wounds or reduce pain. N-MASS 2. If you refer to something as balm, you mean that it makes you feel better. The place is balm to the soul. N-UNCOUNT: also a N [approval]

Easton's Bible Dictionary

contracted from Bal'sam, a general name for many oily or resinous substances which flow or trickle from certain trees or plants when an incision is made through the bark.

(1.) This word occurs in the Authorized Version (Gen. 37:25; 43:11; Jer. 8:22; 46:11; 51:8; Ezek. 27:17) as the rendering of the Hebrew word _tsori_ or _tseri_, which denotes the gum of a tree growing in Gilead (q.v.), which is very precious. It was celebrated for its medicinal qualities, and was circulated as an article of merchandise by Arab and Phoenician merchants. The shrub so named was highly valued, and was almost peculiar to Palestine. In the time of Josephus it was cultivated in the neighbourhood of Jericho and the Dead Sea. There is an Arab tradition that the tree yielding this balm was brought by the queen of Sheba as a present to Solomon, and that he planted it in his gardens at Jericho.

(2.) There is another Hebrew word, _basam_ or _bosem_, from which our word "balsam," as well as the corresponding Greek balsamon, is derived. It is rendered "spice" (Cant. 5:1, 13; 6:2; margin of Revised Version, "balsam;" Ex. 35:28; 1 Kings 10:10), and denotes fragrance in general. _Basam_ also denotes the true balsam-plant, a native of South Arabia (Cant. l.c.).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bam (tseri, tsori; Septuagint rhetine): The name of an odoriferous resin said to be brought from Gilead by Ishmaelite Arabs on their way to Egypt (Ge 37:25). It is translated "balm" in the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), but is called "mastic," the Revised Version, margin. In Ge 43:11 it is one of the gifts sent by Jacob to Joseph, and in Eze 27:17 it is named as one of the exports from Judea to Tyre. The prophet Jeremiah refers figuratively to its medicinal properties as an application to wounds and as a sedative (Jer 8:22; 46:11; 51:8). The name is derived from a root signifying "to leak," and is applied to it as being an exudation. There is a sticky, honeylike gum resin prepared at the present day at Jericho, extracted from the Balanites Aegyptiaca grown in the Ghor, and sold to travelers in small tin boxes as "Balm of Gilead," but it is improbable that this is the real tscori and it has no medicinal value. The material to which the classic authors applied the name is that known as Mecca balsam, which is still imported into Egypt from Arabia, as it was in early times. This is the exudation from the Balsamodendron opobalsamum, a native of southern Arabia and Abyssinia. The tree is small, ragged-looking and with a yellowish bark like that of a plane tree, and the exudation is said to be gathered from its smaller branches. At the present day it grows nowhere in Palestine. Dr. Post and other botanists have sought for it on the Ghor and in Gilead, and have not found it, and there is no trace of it in the neighborhood of Jericho, which Pliny says is its only habitat. Strabo describes it as growing by the Sea of Galilee, as well as at Jericho, but both these and other ancient writers give inconsistent and incorrect descriptions of the tree evidently at second hand. We learn from Theophrastus that many of the spices of the farther East reached the Mediterranean shore through Palestine, being brought by Arab caravans which would traverse the indefinitely bounded tract East of Jordan to which the name Gilead is given, and it was probably thus that the balm received its local name. Mecca balsam is an orange-yellow, treacly fluid, mildly irritating to the skin, possibly a weak local stimulant and antiseptic, but of very little remedial value.

Alex. Macalister

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Ointment, fragrant or precious ointment, unguent. 2. Healing, soothing, mitigant, assuager, anodyne, cure.

Moby Thesaurus

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