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Henna   Listen
noun
Henna  n.  
1.
(Bot.) A thorny tree or shrub of the genus Lawsonia (Lawsonia alba). The fragrant white blossoms are used by the Buddhists in religious ceremonies. The powdered leaves furnish a red coloring matter used in the East to stain the nails and fingers, the manes of horses, etc.
2.
(Com.) The leaves of the henna plant, or a preparation or dyestuff made from them.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Henna" Quotes from Famous Books



... HENNA (Lawsonia inermis), is an important dye-stuff, and the distilled water of the flowers is used as a perfume. The Mahomedan women in India use the shoots for dyeing their nails red, and the same practice prevails in Arabia. In these countries ...
— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds

... the first hour after noon that the beautiful Babe-bi-bobu, suddenly rising from her recumbent attitude, clapped her pretty little hands, the fingers of which were beautifully tipped with henna, and beckoning to her attendants, retired gracefully from the hall of audience. The surprise and commotion was great, and what made her conduct more particular was, that the only son of the chief Brahmin who had first raised the question, and headed the Anti-Molist party, was at ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... with his tongue. "I didn't realize your hair was so dark, Major. It'll want a dash of henna to ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... waiting for him, sitting weeping by the wayside, under a great ashwattha tree: beautifully dressed, blazing with jewels, and adorned with saffron and antimony, betel, indigo, and spangles, flowers, minium, and henna, bangles on ancle and comb in her hair. And she said to that Rajpoot, who was as utterly astounded by the sight of her as if she had been water in the desert: O son of a king, succour one who is utterly without resource. ...
— An Essence Of The Dusk, 5th Edition • F. W. Bain

... wells stood troops of camels, whose Eesa proprietors scowled fiercely at us, and stalked over the plain with their long, heavy spears: for protection against these people, the citizens have erected a kind of round tower, with a ladder for a staircase. Near it are some large tamarisks and the wild henna of the Somali country, which supplies a sweet-smelling flower, but is valueless as a dye. A thick hedge of thorn-trees surrounds the only cultivated ground near Zayla: as Ibn Said declared in old times, "the people have no gardens, and know nothing of fruits." The variety ...
— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... new plant, large, with broad and smooth thick velvety leaves, but omitted to write down the name. It produces a milky juice, with which the people dye the palms of their hands, instead of with henna. The plant has a disagreeable odour, and every appearance of being poisonous; but they say it is not so, ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson

... women seem to imagine that when they dip their heads in henna twenty years suddenly slips from off them into the mess. As a matter of fact, they invariably pick up an additional ten years with the dye every time. After all, the hair, even at its dullest and greyest, shows ...
— Over the Fireside with Silent Friends • Richard King

... heard the shrieks and giggles of feminine consternation that told of women being herded into the zenana. The Amishman glimpsed one of the ladies, perhaps Sarki Kazunzumi's most junior wife, dashing toward the female sanctuary. Her eyes were lozenges of antimony; her hands, dipped in henna, seemed clad in pale kid gloves. Aaron, recalling pointers on Murnan etiquette he'd received at Georgetown, elaborately did not see the lady. He removed his hat as the turbaned butler bowed him to a plush-covered sofa. Waziri ...
— Blind Man's Lantern • Allen Kim Lang

... here till late at night. I read several pieces of Milton's poetry. I went to the gardens to see the wells: people fetch water from the wells of the gardens, where the supply is sufficiently abundant. I observed in the gardens the henna plant, the cotton plant, the indigo plant, and the tobacco plant. All these appear to be commonly cultivated in the gardens of Zinder. There are scarcely any other vegetables but onions, and beans, and tomatas; but the people cultivate a variety of small ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2 • James Richardson

... and they walk well, with a sinuous swagger. But there is a sharp, harsh tone about them and one could imagine them very accomplished in bitter speeches. Their eyes are their best feature, but they contain an expression that is hard, restless and challenging. They mess themselves about with henna. Some wear nose rings and all wear bangles that clash as they walk. They were interested in the nurses and seemed for some obscure reason mildly amused. As labourers they were employed in large numbers carrying baskets of earth on their heads, or mixing mud and straw for plastering purposes. ...
— In Mesopotamia • Martin Swayne

... pure snow. A singular animation, half-feverish, beamed in her small, piercing, restless eyes, and her delicate ears with their well-marked rims were quite red. The light that fell from the wax candles imparted to her hair a Titian red tint as if she had bound her locks with henna during the night. She was visibly assured of her power and smiled with a strange ...
— His Excellency the Minister • Jules Claretie

... leaf of gold had been placed on the mouth as the seal of eternal silence. The hair, exceedingly fine, silky, and soft, dressed in light curls, did not fall below the tops of the ears, and was of that auburn tint so much prized by Venetian women. It looked like a child's hair dyed with henna, as one sees it in Algeria. I do not think that this colour was the natural one; Nes Khons must have been dark like other Egyptians, and the brown tone was doubtless produced by the essences and perfumes of ...
— The Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 5 - The Romance of a Mummy and Egypt • Theophile Gautier

... 22, 1916, British columns under General Aylmer advanced up the river on the right bank to Um-el-Arak, occupying a position which commanded the Turkish camp behind their trenches at El Henna, a marsh on the left bank. At daybreak the British guns opened a heavy bombardment on the enemy's camp across the Tigris, which at this point makes a sharp bend to the north. The Turks were evidently taken by surprise, for ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume IV (of 8) • Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds, Allen L. (Allen Leon)

... Cairo bazars present! This old Turk, with flowing caftan and white turban, from his dingy quarters dispenses delicious odors, curious pastes and essences, with kohl for the eyes and henna for the fingers. Another has piles of sandal-wood fans, beads, and cheap jewelry of silver and gilt; now we come upon a low platform spread with Syrian crapes of all colors, hues, and patterns, to satisfy the gaudy taste ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou

... forth alone into the garden; but neither could the golden glow of the orange-trees, nor the perfumes of the rosiers, nor the delicate fragrance of the clustering henna and jasmine, delight her; so she wearied for the hour of noon, having privately sent to Demetrius, inviting him to meet her by the fountain of the pillars at ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir

... the very thing for you. I had you in mind when I bought it. Now don't say you can't wear henna. Wait till you ...
— Half Portions • Edna Ferber

... of severe fighting the Spanish regulars were victorious, and the leader of the rebels, Dr. Ramon E. Bentances, who has since resided most of the time in Paris, was captured, as was also J. J. Henna, afterward a New York physician. All the prisoners were sentenced to be ...
— Porto Rico - Its History, Products and Possibilities... • Arthur D. Hall

... from Span. alcana, Arab. al-hena henna, Egyptian privet, or Lawsonia inermis), a plant, Alkanna or Anchusa tinctoria, of the order Boraginaceae, also known as orchanet, dyer's bugloss, Spanish bugloss or bugloss of Languedoc, which is grown in the south of France and ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... white, and very fine, but there was no henna on her nails, nor kohl beneath her lids, nor jewels in her hair. So she would prove that, though she was a coming queen, she was not glad of it. Hers was not the spirit that hides its trouble and enamels the exterior with false flushes and smiles. ...
— The Yoke - A Romance of the Days when the Lord Redeemed the Children - of Israel from the Bondage of Egypt • Elizabeth Miller

... to the finely rounded limbs half buried in billowy cushions; the attitude is the very poetry of repose, languid it may be, but glowing life thrills beneath that flower-soft exterior, from the varying cheek and flashing eye, to the henna-dyed taper fingers, that capriciously play with her rosary of beads. The blaze of sunshine is round her kiosk, but she sits in the softened shadow so dear to the painter's eye. And so she dreams ...
— Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century • W. H. Davenport Adams

... wouldn't stay another night in your wretched house, I wouldn't eat another of your wretched meals. You may keep my week's wage. I wish you'd buy the children beefsteak with it but I've no doubt it will go for cocktails and henna!" ...
— Jane Journeys On • Ruth Comfort Mitchell

... all that had taken place between them from first to last. While he was thus speaking a great cry was heard, and it came from a Sheikh who was saying, This is not humanity. They looked at the speaker, who was an old man with trimmed beard dyed with henna, and upon him was a blue kerchief. When Ja'afar saw him he asked him what was the matter, and he exclaimed, Take away the young man from under the sword, for there is no fault in him: he hath killed no one nor doth he know anything of the dead ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... that same island is ever peopled from Ireland,[3] and in it dwell a multitude of holy men, and countless saints lie there unknown to all save only to God Omnipotent. Now for many days did Saint Kyranus dwell in hard service, under the most holy Abbot Henna, and great miracles were manifested by him, and works of holiness are still there related. Now when Saint Kiaranus was there, he saw this marvellous vision—a like vision Saint Enna also saw—to wit, a great and fruitful tree on the bank of the river Synna in the middle of Ireland, whose ...
— The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran - Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of - The Celtic Saints • Anonymous

... Madame Chrysastheme! oh, Madame Butterfly! Oh, Mimosa San, and Pitti Sing, and Yum Yum, and all ye vaunted beauties of Japan! if you could have seen her in that garb! Poor little ladies of the Orient, how hopelessly you would have wrung your henna-stained fingers! Poor little Ichabods of the East, whose glory departed irretrievably when she adopted this garment, I tremble to think of the heart-burnings and palpitations and hari-karis ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell

... laughed again. "She can do no harm to Kathryn, but I own that if George were not at present quite madly in love with a darling being at least fifteen years older than himself I should pause to reflect. Mrs. Stacy will keep him steady—Mrs. Alan Stacy, you know—the one with the magnificent henna hair, and the eyes that droop. No boy of twenty-two can resist her. They call her adorers ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... walk about the bazars incognita. They are mostly brilliantly hued and beautifully worked in gold. There was also the divan, where one bought beautiful stuffs, gaudy Persian rugs, and prayer-carpets for furnishing the house. There was the bazar where one bought henna, wherewith to stain the hands, the feet, and the finger- nails. And last, but by no means least, there was the pipe or narghileh bazar, which contained the most beautiful pipe-sticks I ever saw, and the most lovely narghilehs, which were made in exquisite ...
— The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton Volume II • Isabel Lady Burton & W. H. Wilkins

... pears, apples, plums, figs, cherries, mulberries, barberries, walnuts, almonds, and pistachio-nuts. The kinds of grain chiefly cultivated are wheat, barley, millet, rice, and Indian corn or maize, which has been imported into the country from America. Pulse, beans, sesame, madder, henna, cotton, opium, tobacco, and indigo, are also grown in some places. The three last-named, and maize or Indian corn, are of comparatively recent introduction; but of the remainder it may be doubted whether there is a single one which was ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 5. (of 7): Persia • George Rawlinson

... palms of the hands. There is a tradition among the Mohammedans that the Prophet once called this plant "the best of all herbs." The leaf in form of a dry powder is sold in the bazars of India under the name of "henna"; mixed with water it gives it a yellow color, and when boiled the tone of the liquid becomes darker; the addition of an alkali turns it brown. In Persia they add indigo to this solution and use ...
— The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines • T. H. Pardo de Tavera

... coats, what are quarter million incomes?'" She looked up from the page with a histrionic movement of the head; her orange coiffure nodded portentously. Denis looked at it, fascinated. Was it the Real Thing and henna, he wondered, or was it one of those Complete Transformations one sees ...
— Crome Yellow • Aldous Huxley

... uncovered—it is permissible at sunset—and with her face lifted, as she listened to the call to prayer, so that a sun-ray silting in through the silks blazed down upon the positively red curls which rioted all over her head and were of a tone sharper than henna, yet many times removed from the shades of red known ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest

... and phulel or essence of tilli or sesamum. Scents are usually sold by the tola of 18 annas silver weight, [37] and a tola of attar may vary in price from 8 annas to Rs. 80. Other scents are made from khas-khas grass, the mango, henna and musk, the bela flower, [38] the champak [39] and cucumber. Scent is manufactured by distillation from the flowers boiled in water, and the drops of congealed vapour fall into sandalwood oil, which they say is the basis of all scents. Fragrant oils are also sold for ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume II • R. V. Russell



Words linked to "Henna" :   touch, hair dye, tinge



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