Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IN'CENSE, n. [in'cens; L. incensum, burnt, from incendo, to burn; It. incenso; Fr. encens.]

1. Perfume exhaled by fire; the odors of spices and gums, burnt in religious rites, or as an offering to some deity. A thick cloud of incense went up. Ezek. viii.
2. The materials burnt for making perfumes. The incense used in the Jewish offerings was a mixture of sweet spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, and the gum of the frankincense tree. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein and put incense thereon. Lev. x.
3. Acceptable prayers and praises. Mal. i.
4. In the Materia Medica, a dry resinous substance known by the name of thus and olibanum. Encyc.