n. [ F. essence, L. essentia, formed as if fr. a p. pr. of esse to be. See Is, and cf. Entity. ]
The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under. Landor. [ 1913 Webster ]
Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [ charity ]. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]
The essence of Addison's humor is irony. Courthope. [ 1913 Webster ]
And uncompounded is their essence pure. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]
As far as gods and heavenly essences
Can perish. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]
He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]
The . . . word essence . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the abstract of the verb “to be, ” it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass bottle. J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]
Nor let the essences exhale. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]
v. t.
n. [ F., fr. L. quinta essentia fifth essence. See Quint, and Essence. ]
☞ The ancient Greeks recognized four elements, fire, air, water, and earth. The Pythagoreans added a fifth and called it nether, the fifth essence, which they said flew upward at creation and out of it the stars were made. The alchemists sometimes considered alcohol, or the ferment oils, as the fifth essence. [ 1913 Webster ]
Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]
v. t. To distil or extract as a quintessence; to reduce to a quintessence. [ R. ] Stirling. “Truth quintessenced and raised to the highest power.” J. A. Symonds. [ 1913 Webster ]