Definition of "incense"

incense

/ˈɪnsɛns/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural incenses
1. A perfume used in the rites of various religions.
  Quotations
  When the folding-doors were on such solemn occasions thrown open, and the new Abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and mitre, and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and his juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of monks behind him, with all besides which could announce the supreme authority to which he was now raised, his appearance was a signal for the magnificent jubilate to rise from the organ and music-loft, and to be joined by the corresponding bursts of Alleluiah from the whole assembled congregation.
  1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], page 281
2. (figurative) Homage; adulation.
verb
third-person singular simple present incenses, present participle incensing, simple past and past participle incensed
1. (obsolete) To set on fire; to inflame; to kindle; to burn.
  Quotations
  Twelve Trojan princes wait on thee, and labour to incense / Thy glorious heap of funeral.The spelling has been modernized.
  , Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volumes (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843,
2. (transitive) To anger or infuriate.
3. (archaic) To incite, stimulate.
4. (transitive) To offer incense to.
  Quotations
  And after this Almachius hastilyBad his ministres fecchen openlyCecile, so that she mighte in his presenceDoon sacrifyce, and Iupiter encense.And after this, Almachius hastilyOrdered his ministers to fetch publiclyCecile, so that she might in his presenceDo sacrifice and burn incense to Jupiter.
  late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 410-413
5. (transitive) To perfume with, or as with, incense.
  Quotations
  To haue her bound, incenſed with wanton ſweetes, / Her vaines fild hie with heating delicates, / […] / O Ithaca can chaſteſt Penelope hold out.
  c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, Act III, scene ii
  Neither, for the future, shall any man or woman, self-styled noble, be incensed,—foolishly fumigated with incense, in Church; as the wont has been.
  1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, (please specify the book or page number)
  The priests solemnly incensed the girl who personated the goddess.
  1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 294

Definition of "incense"

incense

noun

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verb

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