incensing

Verb

incense (third-person singular simple present incenses, present participle incensing, simple past and past participle incensed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To set on fire; to inflame; to kindle; to burn.
   • Twelve Trojan princes wait on thee, and labour to incense / Thy glorious heap of funeral.[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer...

   Synonyms:

   inflame, aflame, alight, conflagrate, fire, fire up, ignite, enkindle, light, light up

2. (transitive) To anger; to infuriate.
   • I think it would incense him to learn the truth.

   Synonyms:

   inflame, affront, aggravate, anger, antagonize, awrath, burn up, cheese off, cross, embitter

3. (archaic, transitive) To incite; to stimulate.

   Synonyms:

   provoke, abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting, bring about, cheer

4. (transitive) To offer incense to.
   • And after this Almachius hastily
     Bad his ministres fecchen openly
     Cecile, so that she mighte in his presence
     Doon sacrifyce, and Iupiter encense.
     And after this, Almachius hastily
     Ordered his ministers to fetch publicly
     Cecile, so that she might in his presence
     Do sacrifice and burn incense to...late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 410-413

   Synonyms:

   fume

5. (transitive) To perfume with, or as with, incense.
   • To haue her bound, incenſed with wanton ſweetes, / Her vaines fild hie with heating delicates, / […] / O Ithaca can chaſteſt Penelope hold out.c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii

   Synonyms:

   fume, musk, cense, aromatize, odorize, scent

See all 8 meanings of incense