Forms: 4 enbaume, -bawme, 5 -bame, 6 en-, embaulme, -baum, -balme, 6– embalm. Also 6 inbau(l)me, 7 imbalm(e. [ME. enbaume, a. F. embaume-r, f. en- (see EN-) + baume BALM sb.]
I. 1. To impregnate (a dead body) with spices, to preserve it from decay.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16873. They … wyth oynementes the body enbawmyd.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 676. Let the corse enbaume.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3319. Þan was his body enbawmed · &, as he bede, graven.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 136/3. The body enbamed wythin the tombe.
1570–6. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 313. They had before his buriall embaulmed his body.
1611. Bible, Gen. l. 26. They imbalmed him [Joseph], and he was put in a coffin, in Egypt.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 170. I was a chaste Wife to my Grave: Embalme me, Then lay me forth.
1685. J. Cooke, Marrow of Chirurgery (ed. 4), VI. iii. ii. 252. The Heart, which may be Embalm’d with the Body.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 15. 9. In Egypt they embalmed dead bodies with it [tar].
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 457. For the body when shrunk and embalmed, as is the custom in Egypt, may remain almost entire through infinite ages.
2. transf. To preserve (a corpse) from decay by other means, as by cold, etc. rare.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xix. 240. The frost has embalmed their remains.
3. fig. a. To preserve from oblivion; chiefly in good sense, to keep in sweet and honored remembrance.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethicks, xxi. 343. Being enbalmed as it were by Eternity.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., v. (1738), 118. Some second Homer, in whose sheets his [Alexander’s] name might be imbalmed for ages to come.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), I. Introd. 1. That … elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 23. The lines ought to embalm his memory.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., Concl. iv. To embalm In dying songs a dead regret.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, I. iii. 166. That universal dread of poison which had embalmed itself in one of the commonest ceremonies of the feudal household.
b. nonce-use.
18[?]. (H. or J.?) Smith, Address to a Mummy in Belzoni’s Exhibition (last verse), Oh! let us keep the soul, embalmed and pure in living virtue.
II. 4. † a. To salve or anoint with aromatic spices, oil, etc. (obs.) b. To endue with balmy fragrance.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIV. 107. Þe bisshop þat blessed ȝow and embaumede ȝoure fyngeres. Ibid., XX. 86. With þe blod of that barn embaumed and baptized.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, 79. For wyth heuynly deu she enbalmyd was.
1511. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm., 36. With fragrant savour inbaumeth all the house.
1563. Homilies, II. Excess Appar. (1859), 315. In painting our faces … in embalming our bodies.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 842. The buxom air, imbalm’d With odours.
1746–7. Hervey, Medit. & Contempl. (1818), 139. They reserve their richest exhalations to embalm his morning and evening walks.
1877. Bryant, May Even., vi. Among the opening buds thy breathings pass, And come embalmed away.
† 5. To steep (e.g., in poison). Obs. rare–1.
1623. trans. Favine’s Theat. Hon., II. v. 90. At them they let flie their darts and arrowes embalmed in venemous hearbs.
