anoint
Other forms: anointed; anointing; anoints
To anoint means to choose by divine intervention. Or at least it seems like the big guy upstairs had something to do with it.
Saints and religious leaders are said to be anointed, but so is that new unstoppable quarterback who saved the team midseason. Anoint comes to us from the ancient Latin word unguere, which means "to smear." Which explains the other sense of this word, which is to apply with oil or another smearable substance, such as during a religious ceremony.
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administer an oil or ointment to ; often in a religious ceremony of blessing
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choose by or as if by divine intervention
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Vocabulary lists containing anoint
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered this, his last speech, on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. On the following day, he was assassinated. In the speech, King challenges the United States to live up to its ideals and calls for acts of nonviolent protest against institutionalized racism. Toward the end of the speech, King references the possibility of his own untimely death.
In this comedy, two Athenian couples and a troupe of actors become unwitting pawns in a squabble between a fairy king and queen.
Originally published in 1942, Edith Hamilton's collection of myths is an essential text for students of the ancient world.