Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To treat (a corpse) with preservatives in order to prevent decay.
- transitive verb To protect from change or oblivion; preserve or fix.
- transitive verb To impart fragrance to; perfume.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To dress or anoint with balm; specifically, to preserve from decay by means of balsams or other aromatic spices; keep from putrefaction by impregnating with spices, gums, and chemicals, as a dead body.
- Hence To preserve from neglect or decay; preserve in memory.
- To impart fragrance to; fill with sweet scent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To anoint all over with balm; especially, to preserve from decay by means of balm or other aromatic oils, or spices; to fill or impregnate (a dead body), with aromatics and drugs that it may resist putrefaction.
- transitive verb To fill or imbue with sweet odor; to perfume.
- transitive verb To preserve from decay or oblivion as if with balm; to perpetuate in remembrance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To treat a
corpse withpreservatives in order to preventdecomposition - verb transitive To
perfume or addfragrance to something
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb preserve a dead body
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Squeeze the blood out of the hand; embalm it in a shroud and steep it in a solution of saltpetre, salt and pepper for two weeks and then dry in the sun.
A Bit of Soap Heather McDougal 2009
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She can only embalm his cat and mouse in casein and mahogany, making his newspaper art both dreary and precious.
Duchamp Redux Richard B. Woodward 2011
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I was so rudely interrupted, the one thing only that can balm and embalm this savage breast is the ‘Maiden’s
CHAPTER III 2010
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With all the talk about health care reform, no one has yet to point a finger at the food industry which has created snacks and foods so full of preservatives and chemicals and sugars that you can self embalm before you die.
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Maybe our kids should be going to mortuary college instead -- oh wait, we'll have computer-operated robots to embalm & bury the dead.
East Aurora School District 131 | What's the Progress for One of Aurora's Most Serious Challenges? 2009
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Squeeze the blood out of the hand; embalm it in a shroud and steep it in a solution of saltpetre, salt and pepper for two weeks and then dry in the sun.
Archive 2009-06-01 Heather McDougal 2009
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After deliberations involving Stalin and the head of the secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who had organised the funeral, it had been decided to embalm Lenin rather than bury or cremate the body.
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It all evokes the impermanence of memory and the capacity of photography not so much to capture the fleeting moment, but to embalm it.
ArtScene: This Week's Top Exhibitions in the Western U.S. (August 17-21, 2010) 2010
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It took the same amount of bottles of embalming fluids to embalm him as races that he won.
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An undertaker came to the house to embalm him, and then he was to be taken to the cemetery.
The Fiddler in the Subway Gene Weingarten 2010
bilby commented on the word embalm
"Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other."
- Neil Simon.
February 18, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word embalm
"To protect from change or oblivion; preserve or fix: "A precedent embalms a principle” (Benjamin Disraeli)." --AHD
June 8, 2012