▪ I. † cense, n.1 Obs.
Also 4 cens, 4–5 sense, 4–6 sence.
[Shortened form of ME. encens, incense.]
Incense.
| a 1375 Joseph Arim. 290 With sencers..and a viole of sence. 1382 Wyclif Song of Sol. iv. 6 The hil of cens [1388 encense]. 14.. Masse (Tundale's Vis. 150), iij. kyngis..There offorde golde, sense, and myrrre. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 66 Cense or incense or rychelle. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. viii. 95 On the altaris birnand full of sence The sacrifice scho offerit. 1540 Inv. Worcester Priory in Greene Hist. Worcester II. App. 5 A navett to putt cense yn. |
▪ II. † cense, n.2 Obs.
Also 6–8 cens, 7 cence.
[a. OF. cense (mod.F. cens):—L. census registration of citizens, property, etc., census, f. censēre to estimate, rate, assess, etc.]
1. A tax or tribute; = census 2.
| 1524 St. Papers Hen. VIII, VI. 374 The pention and cense, which the Frenche King payd before the warris. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) Matt. xvii. 25 The kings of the earth of whom receive they tribute or cense? 1661 J. Stephens Procurations 76 A Cense, or Tribute in money payd to the Bishop..from the inferiour Clergie. 1741 T. Robinson Gavelkind i. 3 Which..yielded no Cens, Rent, or Service in Money. 1763 Burn Eccl. Law (1797) III. 120. |
2. = census 1, 3.
| 1533 Bellenden Livy iv. (1822) 316 Mony yeris eftir thare wes na cens, that is to say, estimacioun of men, be thare gudis. 1600 Holland Livy i. xlii. 30 He [Servius Tullius] devised and ordained the Cense. 1720 Stow's Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) I. i. i. 3/1 In the year 1636..Sir Edward Bromfield then Mayor took occasion..to make a Cense or Computation of the people who were..found to be 700,000. |
b. An enumeration or list (of things).
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 279 In all the Cense of Hereditary diseases. |
3. Rating, taken as determining position or rank; ‘rate’; income.
| 1627 Feltham Resolves ii. lii. (1677) 264 More resplendent in their robes, than others of a larger cense. 1636 B. Jonson Discov. (1692) 713/1 A man whose estate and cense..you are familiar with. 1650 C. Elderfield Tythes 298 A person of cense and possession. |
▪ III. cense, v.1
(sɛns)
Forms: 4–6 sense, 5 scence, 5–6 sence, 5– cense.
[f. cense n.1 (OF. cense), or shortened (in Eng. or Fr.) from encense, F. encenser.]
1. a. trans. To perfume with odours from burning incense; to burn incense before, offer incense to; esp. by way of worship or honour.
| c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 155 This Absolon..Goth with a senser on the haly day, Sensing the wyves of the parisch fast. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) 49 In the temple..hem to scence bothe clene and pure. 1536 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 59 With..sensers to sense the Kinge and Queene as they rode by them. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 309 b, To cense them with Frankencense. 1675 J. Smith Chr. Relig. Appeal i. 17 He was censed in his Cratch by the Wise-men of the East. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. xii. 362 The Salii sing, and cense his altars round With Saban smoke. 1716–8 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. I. xxxvii. 141 Two Slaves kneeling censed my hair, clothes, and handkerchief. 1811 H. Martyn in Sargent Life (1881) 289 The priest..at the time of incense censed me four times. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) IV. xvii. 189. |
| fig. 1881 E. Purcell in Academy 22 Jan. 56 The reverent adulation with which the authoress censes her she-Ritualist. |
b. transf. To fill as with the smoke of incense.
| 1886 Pall Mall G. 7 Sept. 4/2 Clouds waving, dreamily cense the air continually. |
2. intr. To burn or offer incense. Cf. censing vbl. n.1, censing ppl. a.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 66 Censyn or caste þe sensere, thurifico. c 1449 Pecock Repr. 169 It is not leeful and expedient that men..cense bifore hem. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 171/2 That they shold sacrefyse and sence tofore the goddes. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 279/1. 1670 Cotton Espernon iii. xii. 617 The man that cens'd at Vespers. 1732 Neal Hist. Purit. I. 34 Censing and kneeling before them [images] is allowed. |
▪ IV. † cense, v.2 Obs.
[ad. L. censēre to estimate, rate, assess, be of opinion, etc. Cf. cense n.2]
1. trans. To judge, estimate, reckon.
| 1606 Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. To Rdr., And most—what but for Nods doe cense Saints, senselesse of more Recompence. 1697 Evelyn Numism. ii. 21 The Saracens who likewise are to be censed among the Barbarous. |
2. To take a census of, assess.
| a 1719 Addison Evid. Chr. Relig. ii. ii, Augustus Caesar had ordered the whole Empire to be censed or taxed. |