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• balm-of-Gilead
  balm-of-Gilead

  noun

  any of several plants of the genus Commiphora, especially C. opobalsamum and C. meccanensis, which yield a fragrant oleoresin.
• balm of Gilead
  balm of Gilead

  noun

  any of several trees of the burseraceous genus Commiphora , esp C. opobalsamum of Africa and W Asia, that yield a fragrant oily resin Compare balm myrrh

balm-of-Gilead

American  

[bahm-uhv-gil-ee-uhd] / ˈbɑm əvˈgɪl i əd /

noun

1. any of several plants of the genus Commiphora, especially C. opobalsamum and C. meccanensis, which yield a fragrant oleoresin.

2. Also called Mecca balsam.  the resin itself, a turbid yellow, green, or brownish-red water-insoluble gluey liquid, used chiefly in perfumery.

3. a hybrid North American poplar, Populus gileadensis, cultivated as a shade tree.

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balm of Gilead British  

noun

1. any of several trees of the burseraceous genus Commiphora , esp C. opobalsamum of Africa and W Asia, that yield a fragrant oily resin Compare balm myrrh

2. the resin exuded by these trees

3. a North American hybrid female poplar tree, Populus gileadensis (or P. candicans ), with broad heart-shaped leaves

4. a fragrant resin obtained from the balsam fir See also Canada balsam

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Etymology

Origin of balm-of-Gilead

First recorded in 1695–1705

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

balm-of-Gilead balm of Gilead

The tension of their thoughts was too sharp; they turned for relief to the scene before them, stopping at the stile to look back at the steepled white church, standing under its spreading balm-of-Gilead tree.

From The Stolen Singer by Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger

Once in a long while you may see a balm-of-Gilead tree, or a clump of sapling poplars, planted near the door.

From Little Rivers; a book of essays in profitable idleness by Henry Van Dyke

Beside the fruit trees there was a great umbrella-shaped catalpa, and a balm-of-Gilead, two lindens, and even a ginka,—a rigid, pointed tree with leaves shaped like butterflies, which shivered, but never bent to the wind.

From The Song of the Lark by Willa Sibert Cather

They were making it into five hay-cocks, which were arranged in a circle under a huge balm-of-Gilead tree.

From Five Mice in a Mouse-trap by the Man in the Moon. by Addie Ledyard

He said the balm-of-Gilead lint was much better than the linen lint.

From Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad by Daphne Dale

"It rent the heart, Frederick, but into the gaping wound the balm of Gilead was poured."

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 22, January, 1873 by Various

It finds him wounded, sick and suffering, and points him to the balm of Gilead and the Physician of souls.

From The Story of Mattie J. Jackson Her Parentage—Experience of Eighteen years in Slavery—Incidents during the War—Her Escape from Slavery by L. S. Thompson

Like the balm of Gilead, like forests of frankincense, it filled the room.

From The Coming of the King by Bernie Babcock

All the girls were seated round little round tables amongst beds of geraniums, heltrope, verbenas, and balm of Gilead.

From Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Augustus J. C. Hare

The balm of Gilead, or Canada poplar, is the largest of the species, and really a handsome tree, often growing to the height of fifty or sixty feet, with a trunk of proportionate size.

From Among the Trees at Elmridge by Ella Rodman Church