[f. BALSAM sb.]
1. To anoint or impregnate with balsam; to perfume; to heal, salve.
a. 1666. Wharton, Wks. (1683), 398. Tranquillity succeeds our Brutish Wars, Balsoms our Wounds.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, I. (1693), 57. The Gifts of our young … Age are very sweet, when they are Balsam’d with Discretion.
1800. Moore, Anacreon, lvi. 18. To balsam every mortal woe!
2. intr. (for refl.) To anoint oneself with balsam.
1846. Sismondi’s Lit. Europe, II. xxxviii. 520. To bathe and balsam in the streams of joy.
3. trans. To embalm. rare.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep. (1861), I. 222. [He] fell down dead … We have had him balsamed and sent home.
