incense1
/ˈɪnsɛns
/noun [mass noun]
1A gum, spice, or other substance that is burned for the sweet smell it produces: the sharp lingering sweetness of incense [as modifier]: incense sticks...
- Instead, they burn incense and other sweet odors and light candles.
- You could burn incense sticks or light a scented candle.
- She always had some sandalwood incense burning when she sang, or wrote.
Synonyms
perfume, fragrance, scent;
aroma, bouquet, redolence, balm
1.1The smoke or perfume of incense: the swirls of incense in the air...
- The room was lit almost completely by soft candlelight, and the air was perfumed by sweet-smelling incense, and men smoking pipes filled with herbal concoctions.
- All you see is the mist of thick and perfumed incense.
- The air eddies with charcoal smoke and incense.
verb [with object]
Perfume with incense or a similar fragrance: the aroma of cannabis incensed the air
Derivatives
incensation
Origin
Middle English (originally as encense): from Old French encens (noun), encenser (verb), from ecclesiastical Latin incensum 'something burnt, incense', neuter past participle of incendere 'set fire to', from in- 'in' + the base of candere 'to glow'.
incense2
/ɪnˈsɛns/verb [with object]
Make very angry: locals are incensed at the suggestion...
- Locals from Mountmellick are incensed by the amount of household rubbish that is being illegally dumped in areas of the town.
- A local woman was incensed and began a local petition to campaign to make the council change its mind.
- The locals were incensed and came out of their homes to argue with the British soldiers.
Synonyms
enrage, infuriate, anger, madden, send into a rage, outrage, inflame, exasperate, antagonize, provoke, irritate greatly, rile, gall
informal make someone see red, make someone's blood boil, make someone's hackles rise, get someone's back up, hack off, drive mad/crazy, drive up the wall, get someone's dander up, get someone's goat, get up someone's nose, rattle someone's cage
British informal wind up, get on someone's wick, nark
North American informal burn up, tick off, gravel
vulgar slang piss off
British vulgar slang get on someone's tits
rare empurple
enraged, very angry, irate, furious, infuriated, angered, in a temper, raging, incandescent, fuming, seething, beside oneself, outraged, in high dudgeon
informal mad, hopping mad, wild, livid, as cross as two sticks, boiling, apoplectic, aerated, hot under the collar, on the warpath, up in arms, with all guns blazing, foaming at the mouth, steamed up, in a lather, in a paddy, in a filthy temper, fit to be tied
British informal shirty, stroppy
North American informal sore, bent out of shape, soreheaded, ticked off
Australian/New Zealand informal ropeable, snaky, crook
West Indian informal vex
British informal, dated in a bate, waxy
vulgar slang pissed off
North American vulgar slang pissed
literary wrathful, ireful, wroth
Origin
Late Middle English (in the general sense 'inflame or excite someone with a strong feeling'): from Old French incenser, from Latin incendere 'set fire to'.