Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A mixture of aromatic substances enclosed in a bag or box as a protection against odor or infection, formerly worn on one's person but now usually placed in a dresser drawer or closet.
- n. A case, box, or bag for holding this mixture.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A perfume-ball, or a mixture of perfumes, formerly carried in the pocket or suspended from the neck or the girdle, especially as an amulet, or to prevent infection in time of plague.
- n. A hollow ball or round box used for carrying about the person the ball above described, and sometimes pierced with small openings to allow the perfume to escape.
Wiktionary
- n. A mixture of aromatic substances, made into a ball and carried as a protection against infection
- n. An orange, studded with cloves, hung in a wardrobe to provide a sweet smell
- n. A case in which an aromatic ball was carried
- n. A perforated container filled with pot-pourri for placing in a wardrobe etc
GNU Webster's 1913
Etymologies
- Middle English pomendambre, alteration of Old French pome d'embre, apple of amber, from Medieval Latin pōmum dē ambrā : pōmum, apple, ball (from Latin, fruit) + Latin dē, of; see de- + ambrā, ablative of ambra, amber; see amber. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Well, you might keep the pomander, which is pure gold engraved with ancient signs and the name of the Shining Dawn, Dahana, in Sanskrit characters.”
“The resulting pomander ball was incredibly fragrant and it only took a couple to infuse almost the whole house with a very subtle smell of orange and cloves, a scent that I associate with the holidays as much as eggnog, hot cocoa, wood-burning fireplaces and peppermint candy canes.”
“Its campy as Xena, with an even lower budget, and it would actually be massive fun except for the fact that the director apparently felt the need to compensate for the awesomeness of the power pomander girlz (hey, its set in 1190) by staging the most disturbing rape scene i've seen since Antonia's Line not even 10 minutes into the movie.”
“The Orange and Clove Snowballs I made recently were cookies that featured the flavors of both orange and clove, chosen because I often made orange pomander balls around the holidays as a child (and still do!) and I really associate the season with the warm, spicy scent combination.”
“Usually the craft was orange and clove pomander balls.”
“If you have a knitting needle, you can stick a piece of ribbon just underneath the skin, then tie a loop so you can hang the pomander, on a tree or elsewhere.”
“Arrows studded his corpse like cloves stuck in a pomander orange.”
“Lady Browne toyed with her pomander ball until he went away.”
“A moment later, the pomander ball Lady Browne wore suspended from her waist by a long chain flew upward to strike Tom on the side of the head with a dull thump.”
“In 1522, Cardinal Wolsey gave her a gold cross, the Countess of Devon sent two silver flagons; and the princess 'aunt, Mary the French Queen, gave her solid gold pomander.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pomander’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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The Whole Ball of Wax
Feel free to wax poetic.
the whole ball of..., wax poetic, wax, beeswax, ambergris, cedar waxwing, sealing wax, earwax, paraffin, bougie, epicuticular wax, waxing gibbous moon and 192 more...
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Perfumery
perfume, perfumer, aromachologist, fougère, le nez, civet, perfumer's organ, Tapputi, Eau de Cologne, eau de toilette, eau de perfume, eaux and 92 more...
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The Sweet Smell of...
Things that smell good.
rain, rose, cinnamon, clove, jasmine, apple, sandalwood, rexo, bamboo, bacon, maple, eucalyptus and 36 more...
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Formerly
Being a list of words with definitions containing the word "formerly."
formerly, armorer, link, plummet, brank, pall-mall, florin, quondam, erstwhile, imponderable, recant, ether and 32 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
Words and phrases from Scott Lynch's book, The Lies of Locke Lamora
constable, windfall, sternum, commensurate, disinter, grotty, thresher shark, savvy, miser, reticent, magnanimous, trowel and 301 more...
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A Peckerwick of Fiffoldry
fogray, whalesong, solregn, shoecabbage, thorn-bush, thistledown, pomander, thornbush, dreamy duskywing, sedge, unbunting-like, quilp and 119 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, P
pellucid, pertain, pampas, prate, pinecone, philistine, pantocrator, papaverine, postmeridian, potlatch, pharology, pinniped and 622 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
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I like : P
palladium, pallida mors, pantheon, parabola, parapraxis, pasqueflower, pawpaw, pear, pentacle, pentagram, penumbra, perhaps and 37 more...
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Alexander the gander
colander, salamander, gerrymander, solander, pander, dander, wander, bystander, michigander, oleander, philander, lefthander and 14 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pomander.
wytukaze Citation at sedge. Nov 12, 2008