moxa

Noun

moxa (countable and uncountable, plural moxas)

1. A woolly material obtained from the dried leaves of an Asian species of mugwort, such as Artemisia argyi, as used in moxibustion.
   • And thereupon she burned with her Moxa (of which hereafter) on my feet and knees, (to my best remembrance) about twenty little Escars, which looked like lit∣tle gray specks, without raising any blisters, or causing any after-pain; whereupon also all the pain of the Gout vanish’d.1676, Two Treatises, The one Medical, Of the Gout, And its Nature more narrowly search’d into than hitherto; together with a new way or discharging the same. By Herman Busschof Senior, of Utrecht...
   • Moxa is celebrated in the eastern countries, for preventing and curing many disorders, by being burnt on the skin: a little cone of moxa, laid on the part previously moistened, and set on fire at top, burns down with a temperate glowing heat, and produces a dark coloured spot, the exulceration of...1761, William Lewis, An Experimental History of the Materia Medica, or of the Natural and Artificial Substances Made Use of in Medicine: Containing a Compendious View of Their Natural History, an...
2. Any other substance used in moxibustion.