Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tree of the genus Boswellia, especially
  • noun In Australia, a name applied to some species of Pittosporum, on account of their fragrant flowers.
  • noun A South American tree of the genus Bursera (Icica).
  • noun In the West Indies, a tree of the genus Trichilia (T. moschata).
  • noun Also incense-wood.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The Ponta de Isabel showed the passeio, or promenade, with two brick ruins: its “five hundred fruit-trees of various descriptions” have gone the way of the camphor, the tea-shrub, and the incense-tree, said to have been introduced by the Jesuits.

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo 2003

  • The use of cattle not merely as meat for the sustenance of the living but as the usual and most characteristic life-giving food for the dead naturally played a part in conferring divinity upon the cow, just as an analogous relationship made incense a holy substance and was responsible for the personification of the incense-tree as a goddess.

    The Evolution of the Dragon G. Elliot Smith

  • The animation of the incense-tree by the Great Mother, for the reasons which I have already expounded, [275] formed the link of her identification with the pearl, which probably acquired its magical reputation in the same region.

    The Evolution of the Dragon G. Elliot Smith

  • The medicine-man, who sleeps apart from the "common herd" under an incense-tree, hears the din, and, quickly donning his head-dress, hurries down to the scene.

    Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America G. Whitfield Ray

  • The Ponta de Isabel showed the passeio, or promenade, with two brick ruins: its "five hundred fruit-trees of various descriptions" have gone the way of the camphor, the tea-shrub, and the incense-tree, said to have been introduced by the

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo Volume 2 Richard Francis Burton 1855

  • [59: As I shall explain later (see page 38), the idea of the divinity of the incense-tree was a result of, and not the reason for, the practice of incense-burning.

    The Evolution of the Dragon G. Elliot Smith

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