cense — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To perfume with incense.

   Examples

   The Salii sing and 'cense his altars round.

   More examples (1)

   Alternatively he would make a pretty good deacon: tall, well built, with quite a good voice, assiduously censing every nook and cranny, endowed with a certain histrionic talent, and perhaps also a genuine devotion to the service of God.

Noun

1. A census.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   [I]n the year 1636, King Charles ſending to the Lord Mayor [of London], to make a ſcrutiny, vvhat number of Roman Catholiques and ſtrangers, there vvere in the City, he took occaſion thereby, to make a Cenſe of all the people; and there vvere of Men, VVomen, and Children, above ſeven hundred thouſand that lived vvithin the Barres of his juriſdiction alone; […]

2. A public rate or tax.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   as moneys a sum in name of a cense so returned

3. condition; rank

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   if you write to a man, whose estate and cense as senses, you are familiar with, you may the bolder (to let a taske to his braine) venter on a knot

Verb

1. perfume especially with a censer

   Synonyms

   incensethurify

   Broader terms

   odorizeodourisescent