‖ inˈcendium Obs.
Also in anglicized form incendy.
[L. incendium burning fire, conflagration, burning, f. incendĕre: see incend. Cf. in same sense It. incendio.]
A conflagration; a volcanic eruption.
| 1637 Nabbes Hanniball & Scipio iii. iii, To prevent an incendium it is best To quench a brand before it fire the rest. 1667 Obs. Burn. Lond. in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 445 An incendy, a conflagration, a ruin and devastation by fire. 1669 Phil. Trans. IV. 967 A Chronological Accompt of the several Incendium's or Fires of Mount ætna. 1750 R. Roe Let. to Abraham Johnson 12 Quench'd the fatal flames as spedily as Gulliver did the fam'd Lilliputian Incendium. |