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/bɑm/ /bɑlm/ Listen

noun

Balm n.

(Bot.) An aromatic plant of the genus Melissa.

The resinous and aromatic exudation of certain trees or shrubs.

Any fragrant ointment.

Anything that heals or that mitigates pain. "Balm for each ill."

Balm cricket (Zool.), the European cicada.

Balm of Gilead (Bot.), a small evergreen African and Asiatic tree of the terebinthine family (Balsamodendron Gileadense). Its leaves yield, when bruised, a strong aromatic scent; and from this tree is obtained the balm of Gilead of the shops, or balsam of Mecca. This has a yellowish or greenish color, a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste, and a fragrant smell. It is valued as an unguent and cosmetic by the Turks. The fragrant herb Dracocephalum Canariense is familiarly called balm of Gilead, and so are the American trees, Populus balsamifera, variety candicans (balsam poplar), and Abies balsamea (balsam fir).

verb

Balm v. t. To anoint with balm, or with anything medicinal. Hence: To soothe; to mitigate. (Archaic)

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Etymology of 'Balm'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Balm" Quotes from Famous Books

... conceded by all right-thinking people to be a blessing. It is often a balm. Outside of the building and of earshot the defeated aspirants took what comfort they could in consigning, with great fervor and volubility, all the judicial magnates to that torrid region unknown ...

— The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories • Charles Egbert Craddock

... but not hymns. "It is no love-symphony we hear when the lion thinkers roar," some blunt writer has said. "The moles of Science have never found the heavenly dove's nest, and the Sea of Reason touches no shore where balm for ...

— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth

... leaned on his big arm when we had made our way through the storm. Something was tearing away at his heart-strings, and after a time the pain of it, I think, opened the fount of his memories, as if an irresistible desire had come upon him for the balm there ...

— Sweetapple Cove • George van Schaick

... Throne of God, surely they will bring blessings upon you all. Their names are engraved upon my heart. Ah! some day I shall see your friends; I will go to Paris, if I have to walk the whole way, to thank them for their friendship for you, for to me the thought has been like balm to smarting wounds. We are working like day laborers here, dear. This husband of mine, the unknown great man whom I love more and more every day, as I discover moment by moment the wealth of his nature, leaves the printing-house more and more to me. Why, I guess. Our poverty, yours, and ours, ...

— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... rural villages, farms and manor-houses. Notting Barns was a farmhouse on the site of Notting Hill. In the tea-gardens at Bayswater Sir John Hill cultivated medicinal plants, and prepared his "water-dock essence" and "balm of honey." Invalids frequented Kensington Gravel pits for the benefit of "the sweet ...

— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler

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