"anoint"; "sublime"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I just don't know what "anoint" means here.  To "crown"?  But how exactly?
Surely not "to bring to a successful conclusion"? Not in MW in this sense.

2010 Mary A. Favret _War at a Distance_ (Princeton: P.U.P.) 174: And there
we might just end our brief history of the meaning of war, anointing our own
perplexity with what appears, even in the etymologies, as war's sublime
effects.

BTW, the best I can do with "sublime" is "not quite or fully describable;
ineffable." (The lead-up discusses the word's origin in an etymon meaning
"confusion; discord; strife").  If that is indeed what is meant (maybe not),
it would be a new sense.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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