To ANOINT is to grease with perfumed oil, animal fat, or melted butter, a process employed ritually by many religions and races. People and things are anointed to symbolize the introduction of a sacramental or divine influence, a holy emanation, spirit or power. It can also be seen as a magical mode of ridding persons and things of dangerous influences and diseases, especially of the demons which are believed to be or cause those diseases.
