embalm

• imbalm (archaic)

From Middle English enbawmen, from Middle French embaumer, from Old French embasmer. See balm.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbɑːm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbɑm/, /ɪmˈbɔm/, /ɪmˈbɑlm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːm, -ɑːlm

embalm (third-person singular simple present embalms, present participle embalming, simple past and past participle embalmed)

1. (transitive) To treat a corpse with preservatives in order to prevent decomposition.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 50:2:

     And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     `Yea. The people of Kôr ever embalmed their dead, as did the Egyptians, but their art was greater than the art of the Egyptians, for, whereas the Egyptians disembowelled and drew the brain, the people of Kôr injected fluid into the veins, and thus reached every part.'

2. (transitive, figurative) To preserve.
   • 1872, Robert Ferrier Burns, The Life and Times of the Rev. Robert Burns, page 95:

     There are districts of Canada mainly settled from Paisley and neighbourhood, the hivings off at such seasons as we have referred to, with whose settlement he had not a little to do, and where his memory is embalmed.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     It is very curious to observe how the idea of revenge, inspired by an Egyptian who lived before the time of Christ, is thus, as it were, embalmed in an English family name.

3. (transitive) To perfume or add fragrance to something.