Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A highly viscous or semisolid substance used on the skin as a cosmetic, emollient, or medicament; a salve.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fatty or unctuous preparation of such a consistency as to be easily applied to the skin by inunction, gradually liquefying when in contact with it.
  • noun Spermaceti, white wax, oil of almonds, and glycerin.
  • noun In the German pharmacopoeia, glycerite of starch.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That which serves to anoint; any soft unctuous substance used for smearing or anointing; an unguent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine A viscous preparation of oils and/or fats, usually containing medication, used as a treatment or as an emollient.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun semisolid preparation (usually containing a medicine) applied externally as a remedy or for soothing an irritation
  • noun toiletry consisting of any of various substances in the form of a thick liquid that have a soothing and moisturizing effect when applied to the skin

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English oinement, from Old French oignement, from Vulgar Latin *unguimentum, from Latin unguentum; see unguent.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A later form (as if oint + -ment) of oinement, from Old French oignement ("an anointing"), from oigner, oindre, ongier ("to anoint"), from Latin unguere, ungere ("to anoint").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Strong urge to write oinkment here.

    March 4, 2008

  • And you did! :-)

    March 4, 2008

  • Lots of bad vibe for ointment judging by the list titles.

    May 13, 2009

  • One sometimes wishes there was an ointment for stupid.

    December 2, 2010

  • "Ointment" currently appears on 16 lists with negative themes ("Words I Dislike", "Words I Hate", "Words I Hate With the Fire of a Thousand Suns", etc.), and only 4 lists with positive themes ("Words I Like", etc.).

    The only possible explanation for this shameful attack and scurrilous slander of a lovely and wonderful word is that reesetee and I (and dornyika and janicemc) are the only sane users on Wordnik. The rest of you are all quite clearly insane. And you probably hate freedom, too.

    December 2, 2010

  • Umbrage! What about those of us who don't care one way or the other?

    December 2, 2010

  • Pterodactyl, you haven't listed freedom, so I can only conclude that you hate it too.

    December 2, 2010

  • Ruzuzu, you're either with us, or against us. If our great nation becomes apathetic about words like ointment, then the terrorists have won.

    December 3, 2010

  • *frosts fufluns with ointment and prepares to fire, thinks of some reason not to fire, feels umbrage again, then just wanders off*

    December 3, 2010

  • Gasp! I take umbrage, mollusque, at your baseful accusations.

    December 3, 2010

  • Hey! That's my umbrage!

    December 3, 2010

  • Perhaps ruzuzu is a FIFA infiltrator.

    December 3, 2010

  • Ah, Mr. Prolagus, you are a worthy opponent. Bravo! You've found me out. My ointmenting of fufluns was all just an elaborate ruse.

    December 3, 2010

  • Brackets around "ointmenting", please. :-)

    December 3, 2010

  • *arranges secret meeting between FIFA officials and ointment manufacturers*

    December 3, 2010

  • *inquires about the balance of a certain account in the Cayman Islands*

    December 3, 2010

  • *smiles*

    December 3, 2010

  • I recognize an evil smile when I read one.

    December 3, 2010

  • The ointment reserves in Qatar and Russia should keep my FIFA friends rolling in soothing relief for years to come....

    December 3, 2010

  • What's so evil about that?

    December 3, 2010

  • *smiles*

    December 3, 2010

  • *storms in on milton-bradley fighting vehicle*

    Hey! No ointmenting of fufluns, ruseless or not!

    Why of all the....

    *takes umbrage and rumbles out*

    December 3, 2010

  • *collects any far-flung fufluns, then reports back to an unmarked car over on book-number*

    December 3, 2010

  • *fetches far-flung fuflun fragments for future feasts*

    December 4, 2010

  • *stumbles over dontcry's liberal scattering of Fs*

    December 5, 2010

  • Clearly you people are deliberately creating the need for ointment with all your mess.

    April 27, 2011