The Collaborative International Dictionary
Friar \Fri"ar\, n. [OR. frere, F. fr[`e]re brother, friar, fr. L. frater brother. See Brother.]
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(R. C. Ch.) A brother or member of any religious order, but especially of one of the four mendicant orders, viz:
Minors, Gray Friars, or Franciscans.
Augustines.
Dominicans or Black Friars.
White Friars or Carmelites. See these names in the Vocabulary.
(Print.) A white or pale patch on a printed page.
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(Zo["o]l.) An American fish; the silversides.
Friar bird (Zo["o]l.), an Australian bird ( Tropidorhynchus corniculatus), having the head destitute of feathers; -- called also coldong, leatherhead, pimlico; poor soldier, and four-o'clock. The name is also applied to several other species of the same genus.
Friar's balsam (Med.), a stimulating application for wounds and ulcers, being an alcoholic solution of benzoin, styrax, tolu balsam, and aloes; compound tincture of benzoin.
--Brande & C.Friar's cap (Bot.), the monkshood.
Friar's cowl (Bot.), an arumlike plant ( Arisarum vulgare) with a spathe or involucral leaf resembling a cowl.
Friar's lantern, the ignis fatuus or Will-o'-the-wisp.
--Milton.Friar skate (Zo["o]l.), the European white or sharpnosed skate ( Raia alba); -- called also Burton skate, border ray, scad, and doctor.
Wiktionary
n. (context medicine English) An alcoholic solution of benzoin, styrax, tolu balsam, and aloes, used as an inhalant and to treat damaged skin.
Wikipedia
Friar's Balsam (1885–1899) was an English Thoroughbred racehorse. He was the outstanding British two-year-old of 1887, when he was unbeaten in seven races. He was a sick horse when a beaten favourite in the following year's 2000 Guineas, but returned in the autumn to beat Minting in the Champion Stakes. Friar's Balsam was retired to stud where he had some success as a sire of winners. He was trained at Kingsclere by John Porter for Lord Alington and Sir Frederick Johnstone.
Usage examples of "friar's balsam".
Fix up the job quick as you can, and I'll have a drink of Friar's Balsam afterwards.
When they entered the bedroom Humphrey Cobbler was invisible, but in the old-fashioned bed, shaped rather like an elegant sleigh, a heap of bedclothes showed that he was sitting up and bending forward, and a strong smell, and some very loud sniffings and exhalations, made it clear that he was inhaling the fumes of Friar's Balsam.
Ahead, a copse of poplars, rising like flaming amber swords, was wafting balsam down the woodland ride towards her, evoking the times she used to inhale Friar's Balsam under a towel as a child, reminding her all too violently of her mother and Mike.
You go and recover yourself with an infusion of friar's balsam and don't come back until I call.