▪ I. combust, a.
(kəmˈbʌst)
[a. OF. combust (14th c. in Godefroy), ad. L. combūst-us, pa. pple. of combūr-ĕre: see combure.]
† 1. Burnt; spec. acted on by fire, calcined. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 258 Combust matirs and coagulat. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 64 Of a Combust terrestrietie. 1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples 80 b, The skinnes of them combust or burnt. 1678 R. R[ussell] tr. Geber i. iii. 6 Cast it combust into hot Water. |
† b. Adust. combust choler: ‘choler adust’.
| 1607 T. Walkington Opt. Glass xii. 67 Two kindes of melancholy, the one sequestred from all admixtion..the other..a combust black choler. |
c. as n. That which is burnt.
| 1824 Coleridge Rem. (1836) II. 411 The combustive, the combustible, and the combust. |
2. Astrol. Of the planets: Burnt up (as it were) by the sun in or near conjunction; (seemingly) extinguished by the sun's light.
‘A planet is combust when within 8° 30{p} of the body of the sun: its influence is then said to be burnt up, or destroyed.’
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 668 If I had, O Venus..Aspectes badde of Mars, or of Saturne, Or thou combuste. c 1391 ― Astrol. ii. §4 The lord of the assendent..is fortunat..whan..þat he be nat retrograd ne combust. 1585 Lupton Thous. Notable Th. (1675) 95 If in the Nativity of the Husband Venus be combust, the wife shall die before the husband. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 67 Who can discern those planets that are oft Combust..untill the opposite motion of their orbs bring them..where they may be seen evning or morning? 1808 Scott Marm. iii. xx, Many a planetary sign, Combust, and retrograde, and trine. |
b. combust way: ‘the space in the second half of Libra, and through the whole Sign of Scorpio’ (Bailey).
| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xviii. ii, Frome the combust way she [Dyane] had her so sped, She had no let that was to be dredde. 1696 Phillips s.v. Combustion, Combustway, by reason of several violent or malignant fixed Stars in the second half of Libra and through the whole Sign of Scorpio. |
▪ II. combust, v.
(kəmˈbʌst)
[f. prec., or its Latin source. First and chiefly used in pa. pple. combusted. pa. tense in Sc. also combust.]
trans. To burn up, consume with fire; to calcine. (Now only jocular or affected.)
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 438/2 Fyre descendyd fro heuen upon them and [they] were all combusted and brente. ― G. de la Tour xxxix. D iv, Ne fyre myght haue combusted or brente her. a 1547 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. ix. 224 Putt therto lytherge..and redde corall combusted. 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus ii. 522 Scho..combust thame in the fyre. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxiii, ‘You don't suppose that I would go spontaneously combusting any person?’ 1882 Sutton in Society 7 Oct. 16/1 Wilt thou cook up or combust or incinerate The earth with thy igneous tail? |
† b. fig. To consume or waste as fire does. Obs.
| 1623 Favine Theat. Hon. vi. viii. 145 Such as had combusted his State. 16.. Time's Storehouse 251 (L.) All Germany was combusted with great troubles. |