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Incense definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IN'CENSE, n. in'cens. [L. incensum, burnt, from incendo, to burn.]
1. Perfume exhaled by fire; the odors of spices and gums, burnt in religious rites, or as an offering to some deity.
A thick cloud of incense went up. Ezek 8.
2. The materials burnt for making perfumes. The incense used in the Jewish offerings was a mixture of sweet spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, and the gum of the frankincense tree.
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein and put incense thereon. Lex.10.
3. Acceptable prayers and praises. Mal.l.
4. In the Materia Medica, a dry resinous substance known by the name of thus and olibanum.
IN'CENSE, v.t. in'cens. To perfume with incense. In the Romish church, it is the deacon's office to incense the officiating priest or prelate, and the choir.
INCENSE, v.t. incens.' To enkindle or inflame to violent anger; to excite angry passions; to provoke; to irritate; to exasperate; to heat; to fire. It expresses less than enrage.
How could my pious son thy power incense?

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a substance that produces a fragrant odor when burned
2: the pleasing scent produced when incense is burned; "incense filled the room" v
1: perfume especially with a censer [syn: cense, incense, thurify]
2: make furious [syn: infuriate, exasperate, incense]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English encens, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin incensum, from Latin, neuter of incensus, past participle of incendere to set on fire, from in- + -cendere to burn; akin to Latin cand?re to glow — more at candid Date: 13th century 1. material used to produce a fragrant odor when burned 2. the perfume exhaled from some spices and gums when burned; broadly a pleasing scent 3. pleasing attention ; flattery II. transitive verb (incensed; incensing) Date: 13th century 1. to apply or offer incense to 2. to perfume with incense III. transitive verb (incensed; incensing) Etymology: Middle English encensen, probably from Latin incensus, past participle of incendere to set no fire, provoke Date: 15th century 1. archaic to cause (a passion or emotion) to become aroused 2. to arouse the extreme anger or indignation of

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 a gum or spice producing a sweet smell when burned. 2 the smoke of this, esp. in religious ceremonial. --v.tr. 1 treat or perfume (a person or thing) with incense. 2 burn incense to (a deity etc.). 3 suffuse with fragrance. Derivatives: incensation n. Etymology: ME f. OF encens, encenser f. eccl.L incensum a thing burnt, incense: see INCENDIARY 2. v.tr. (often foll. by at, with, against) enrage; make angry. Etymology: ME f. OF incenser (as INCENDIARY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Incense In"cense, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Incensed; p. pr. & vb. n. Incensing.] [LL. incensare: cf. F. encenser. See Incense, n.] 1. To offer incense to. See Incense. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 2. To perfume with, or as with, incense. ``Incensed with wanton sweets.'' --Marston.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Incense In"cense, n. [OE. encens, F. encens, L. incensum, fr. incensus, p. p. of incendere to burn. See Incense to inflame.] 1. The perfume or odors exhaled from spices and gums when burned in celebrating religious rites or as an offering to some deity. A thick of incense went up. --Ezek. viii. 11. 2. The materials used for the purpose of producing a perfume when burned, as fragrant gums, spices, frankincense, etc. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon. --Lev. x. 1. 3. Also used figuratively. Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride, With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. --Gray. Incense tree, the name of several balsamic trees of the genus Bursera (or Icica) mostly tropical American. The gum resin is used for incense. In Jamaica the Chrysobalanus Icaco, a tree related to the plums, is called incense tree. Incense wood, the fragrant wood of the tropical American tree Bursera heptaphylla.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Incense In*cense", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Incensed; p. pr. & vb. n. Incensing.] [L. incensus, p. p. of incendere; pref. in- in + root of candere to glow. See Candle.] 1. To set on fire; to inflame; to kindle; to burn. [Obs.] Twelve Trojan princes wait on thee, and labor to incense Thy glorious heap of funeral. --Chapman. 2. To inflame with anger; to endkindle; to fire; to incite; to provoke; to heat; to madden. The people are incensed him. --Shak. Syn: To enrage; exasperate; provoke; anger; irritate; heat; fire; instigate.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(incensing, incensed) 1. Incense is a substance that is burned for its sweet smell, often as part of a religious ceremony. 2. If you say that something incenses you, you mean that it makes you extremely angry. This proposal will incense conservation campaigners. = enrage VERB: V n • incensed Mum was incensed at his lack of compassion... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ at/by n, ADJ that

Easton's Bible Dictionary

a fragrant composition prepared by the "art of the apothecary." It consisted of four ingredients "beaten small" (Ex. 30:34-36). That which was not thus prepared was called "strange incense" (30:9). It was offered along with every meat-offering; and besides was daily offered on the golden altar in the holy place, and on the great day of atonement was burnt by the high priest in the holy of holies (30:7, 8). It was the symbol of prayer (Ps. 141:1,2; Rev. 5:8; 8:3, 4).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

in'-sens (qeTorah; in Jer 44:21, qiTTer; in Mal 1:11, qaTar, "In every place incense shall be offered unto my name"; the word lebhonah, translated "incense" in several passages in Isa and Jer in the King James Version, is properly "frankincense," and is so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American)): The offering of incense, or burning of aromatic substances, is common in the religious ceremonies of nearly all nations (Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, etc.), and it is natural to find it holding a prominent place in the tabernacle and temple-worship of Israel. The newer critical theory that incense was a late importation into the religion of Israel, and that the altar of incense described in Ex 30:1 ff is a post-exilian invention, rests on presuppositions which are not here admitted, and is in contradiction to the express notices of the altar of incense in 1Ki 6:20,22; 7:48; 9:25; compare 2Ch 4:19 (see discussion of the subject by Delitzsch in Luthardt's Zeitschrift, 1880, 113 ff). In the denunciation of Eli in 1Sa 2:27 ff, the burning of incense is mentioned as one of the functions of the priesthood (2:28). The "smoke" that filled the temple in Isaiah's vision (Isa 6:4) may be presumed to be the smoke of incense. The word keTorah itself properly denotes. "smoke." For the altar of incense see the article on that subject, and TABERNACLE and TEMPLE. The incense used in the tabernacle service--called "sweet incense" (keToreth ha-cammim, Ex 25:6, etc.)--was compounded according to a definite prescription of the perfumes, stacte, onycha, galbanum and pure frankincense (Ex 30:34 f), and incense not so compounded was rejected as "strange incense" (keTorah zarah, Ex 30:9). In the offering of incense, burning coals from the altar of burnt offering were borne in a censer and put upon the altar of incense (the "golden altar" before the oracle), then the fragrant incense was sprinkled on the fire (compare Lu 1:9 f). Ample details of the rabbinical rules about incense may be seen in the article "Incense," in DB.

See CENSER.

Figuratively, incense was symbolical of ascending prayer. The multitude were praying while Zacharias offered incense (Lu 1:10, thumiama), and in Re 5:8; 8:3 f, the incense in the heavenly temple is connected and even identified (5:8) with "the prayers of the saints."

James Orr

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Enrage, exasperate, inflame, irritate, provoke, anger, chafe, heat, excite, make angry. II. n. 1. Perfume (exhaled by a burning substance). 2. Admiration, applause, laudation, adulation.

Moby Thesaurus

adulation, agalloch, agape, aggravate, agitate, aloeswood, annoy, aroma, aromatize, arouse, asperges, aspersion, auricular confession, awake, awaken, balminess, bar mitzvah, bas mitzvah, blandishment, blandness, blarney, blow the coals, blow up, bouquet, bristle, bunkum, burnt offering, butter, cajolement, cajolery, calambac, call forth, call up, celebration, cense, chafe, circumcision, collection, compliment, confession, confirmation, drink offering, embalm, embitter, enkindle, enrage, ex voto offering, exasperate, excite, eyewash, fair words, fan, fan the fire, fan the flame, fawning, feed the fire, ferment, fire, flame, flattery, foment, fragrance, fragrancy, frankincense, frenzy, fret, fruitiness, fulsomeness, fumigate, glibness, grease, heat, heat up, heave offering, hecatomb, high celebration, holocaust, honeyed phrases, honeyed words, huff, human sacrifice, immolation, impassion, incite, infanticide, inflame, infuriate, instigate, invocation, invocation of saints, ire, irritate, joss stick, key up, kindle, kiss of peace, lather up, lesser litany, libation, light the fuse, light up, lignaloes, linaloa, litany, love feast, lustration, mactation, mad, madden, miff, move, muskiness, nettle, nosegay, oblation, odor, odorize, offering, offertory, oil, oiliness, olibanum, overexcite, palaver, pastille, pax, peace offering, peeve, perfume, piacular offering, pique, praise, pretty lies, processional, provoke, put up to, rally, rankle, reciting the rosary, redolence, rile, roil, rouse, ruffle, sacramental offering, sacrifice, sandalwood, scapegoat, scent, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, set astir, set fire to, set on, set on fire, set up, sic on, smoothness, smugness, soap, soft soap, soft words, spice, spiciness, steam up, stir, stir the blood, stir the embers, stir the feelings, stir up, suaveness, suavity, summon up, suttee, sutteeism, sweet nothings, sweet savor, sweet smell, sweet talk, sweet words, sycophancy, telling of beads, thank offering, the confessional, the confessionary, thurify, tickle, turn on, umbrage, unctuousness, vex, votive offering, wake, wake up, waken, warm, warm the blood, wheedling, whet, whip up, whole offering, work into, work up