balm

plural balms

1. countableuncountableAny of various aromatic resins exuded from certain plants, especially trees of the genus Commiphora of Africa, Arabia and India and Myroxylon of South America.

   Synonyms: balsam

2. countableuncountableAn aromatic preparation for embalming the dead.
3. countableuncountableA plant or tree yielding such substance.

   Synonyms: balsam

4. countableuncountableAny soothing oil or lotion, especially an aromatic one.

   Synonyms: balsam

5. countablefigurativelyuncountableSomething soothing.

   Classical music is a sweet balm for our sorrows.

   2 more examples

   BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove's roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]

   1781, [Mostyn John Armstrong], History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Volume IX. Containing the Hundreds of Smithdon, Taverham, Tunstead, Walsham, and Wayland, volume IX, Norwich: Printed by J. Crouse, for M. Booth, bookseller, →OCLC, page 51

   For Silas House, a novelist who grew up in a congregation in eastern Kentucky about 90 minutes from Ms. Parton’s hometown, the small rural church of his childhood was a paradoxical institution. Its members taught him the “radical empathy” of Jesus, he said. But he also knew from a young age that if they knew he was gay, that empathy could be withdrawn. Ms. Parton’s public persona as someone who consistently embraced gay people and was also “quite Jesus-y” was a balm to him in later years when he didn’t feel comfortable attending church. “For a lot of people including myself, Dolly became what we wanted out of Christianity,” Mr. House said. “She was one of the people who allowed me to come out, and one of the people who allowed me to retain my faith.”

   2026 August 30, Ruth Graham, Emily Cochrane, “Dolly Parton and the ‘Pretty Darn Good’ Southern Church”, in The New York Times, retrieved 31 Aug 2026

   Synonyms: balsam

6. countableuncountableThe lemon balm, Melissa officinalis.
7. countableuncountableAny of a number of other aromatic herbs with a similar citrus-like scent, such as bee balm and horsebalm.

present singular third person balms · participle present balming · participle past balmed · past balmed

1. archaictransitiveTo anoint with balm, or with anything medicinal.

   Shrouded in cloth of state, balmed and entreasured / With full bags of spices!

   c. 1607–1608, William Shakespeare, George] [Wilkins, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, act 3, scene 2, lines 63–64

2. figurativelytransitiveTo soothe; to mitigate.

   This rest might yet have balmed thy broken sinews

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 3, scene 6, line 96