Word.ws English Dictionary

imbalm

imbalm is the archaic form of embalm.

Meaning of embalm

Verb

embalm (third-person singular simple present embalms, present participle embalming, simple past and past participle embalmed)

  1. (transitive) To treat a corpse with preservatives in order to prevent decomposition.
    • And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 50:2
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To preserve.
    • There are districts of Canada mainly settled from Paisley and neighbourhood, the hivings off at such seasons as we have referred to, with whose settlement he had not a little to do, and where his memory is embalmed.1872, Robert Ferrier Burns, The Life and Times of the Rev. Robert Burns, page 95
  3. (transitive) To perfume or add fragrance to something.

Forms of imbalm

third-person singular presentimbalms
present participleimbalming
past participleimbalmed
pastimbalmed

Words formed from imbalm

Questions about imbalm

What is imbalm the archaic form of?
Imbalm is the archaic form of embalm.

Words near imbalm in the dictionary

  1. imbalance
  2. imbalanced
  3. imbalancedly
  4. imbalances
  5. imbalancing
  6. imbalm
  7. imbalmed
  8. imbalmer
  9. imbalmers
  10. imbalming
  11. imbalms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imbalm (page history and authors); embalm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “imbalm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imbalm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.