joss stick

American  

noun

1. a slender stick of a dried, fragrant paste, burned by the Chinese as incense before a joss.

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joss stick British  

noun

1. a stick of dried perfumed paste, giving off a fragrant odour when burnt as incense

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Etymology

Origin of joss stick

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

joss stick

At one end of the living room of a Formosan cottage, incense from a burning joss stick rose fragrantly before an image of Buddha.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was distinctly nervous work however, and Olivia started back, as her husband set the joss stick fizzling.

From The Mandarin's Fan by Fergus Hume

They'll be in here before you can light a joss stick.

From The Gray Mask by Wadsworth Camp

Hwei went to the shrine and brought forth a joss stick.

From The Mandarin's Fan by Fergus Hume

A muttered "I understand—perfectly," showed this, and he did not strive to conceal the alarm which possessed him when Theydon spoke of the joss stick.

From Number Seventeen by Louis Tracy