Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A brilliant burst of fire; a flame.
  • noun A destructive fire.
  • noun A bright or steady light or glare.
  • noun A brilliant, striking display.
  • noun A sudden outburst, as of emotion.
  • noun Used as an intensive.
  • intransitive verb To burn with a bright flame.
  • intransitive verb To shine brightly.
  • intransitive verb To be resplendent.
  • intransitive verb To flare up suddenly.
  • intransitive verb To shoot rapidly and continuously.
  • intransitive verb To shine or be resplendent with.
  • transitive verb To make known publicly; proclaim.
  • noun A white or light-colored spot or stripe on the face of an animal, such as a horse.
  • noun A mark to indicate a trail, usually painted on or cut into a tree.
  • transitive verb To mark (a tree) with a blaze.
  • transitive verb To indicate (a trail) by making blazes.
  • transitive verb To prepare or lead (the way in an endeavor).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as brash, 4 .
  • Irregular spelling of blaes, plural of blae. See blae, n.
  • noun A white spot on the face of a horse, cow, ox, etc. See cut under blesbok.
  • noun A white mark made on a tree, as by removing a piece of the bark, to indicate a boundary, or a path or trail in a forest.
  • noun A local English name of the bleak.
  • noun A torch; a fire-brand.
  • noun A flame; a flaming fire; a confiagration.
  • noun Figuratively, brilliant sunlight; effulgence; brilliance: as, the blaze of day.
  • noun A sudden kindling up or bursting out, as of fire, passion, etc.; an active or violent display; wide diffusion.
  • noun In the game of poker, a hand (now seldom or never used) consisting of five court-cards, ranking between two pairs and three of a kind: so called in allusion to the blaze of color displayed.
  • noun In physiology, an electric current traversing normal living tissue in a positive direction when a mechanical stimulus is applied; the electric response of living tissue to stimulation. See blaze-current.
  • noun Publication; the act of spreading widely by report.
  • noun A pimple.
  • To mark with a white spot on the face, as a horse: only in the perfect participle blazed.
  • To set a mark on, as a tree, usually by cutting off a piece of its bark, so as to show a white spot.
  • To indicate or mark out, as by cutting off pieces of the bark of a number of trees in succession: as, to blaze a path through a forest.
  • To burst into flame; burn with a bright flame or fervent heat; flame: either literally or figuratively.
  • To send forth a bright light; shine like flame or fire: as, a blazing diamond.
  • To be conspicuous; shine brightly with the brilliancy of talents, heroic deeds, etc.
  • To go out with a fiare.
  • To break out with passion or excitement; speak or act violently.
  • To set in a blaze.
  • To temper (steel) by covering it while hot with tallow or oil, which is then burned off.
  • To cause to shine forth; exhibit vividly.
  • To blow, as from a trumpet.
  • Hence To publish; make well known; announce in a public manner.
  • To disclose; betray; defame.
  • In heraldry, to blazon. See blazon, n., 1 and 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make public far and wide; to make known; to render conspicuous.
  • transitive verb (Her.), obsolete To blazon.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English blase, from Old English blæse; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English blasen, from Middle Dutch blāsen, to blow up, swell; see bhlē- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Of Germanic origin; akin to blaze.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English blase, from Old English blæse ("firebrand, torch, lamp, flame"), from Proto-Germanic *blasōn (“torch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to shine, be white”). Cognate with Low German blas ("burning candle, torch, fire"), Middle High German blas ("candle, torch, flame"). Compare Dutch bles ("blaze"), German Blesse ("blaze"), Swedish bläs ("blaze").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English blasen, from Middle English blase ("torch"). See above.

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Examples

Comments

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  • A contranym: both the act of creation ("thriving, alight") and destruction ("burning up"). Ah, the double-edge of fire.

    August 2, 2008

  • Name of a medical marijuana strain.

    January 15, 2010