Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To make holy by religious rite; sanctify.
- transitive verb To invoke divine favor upon:
- transitive verb To make the sign of the cross over.
- transitive verb To honor as holy; glorify.
- transitive verb To confer well-being or prosperity on.
- transitive verb To endow, as with talent.
- idiom (bless you) Used to wish good health to a person who has just sneezed.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To consecrate or set apart to holy or sacred purposes; make or pronounce holy: formerly occasionally used of persons.
- To consecrate (a thing) by a religious rite, as with prayer and thanksgiving; consecrate or hallow by asking God's blessing on: as, to
bless food. - To sanctify (one's self) by making the sign of the cross, especially as a defense against evil influences or agencies: used reflexively.
- To defend; preserve; protect or guard from evil; reflexively, to guard one's self from; avoid; eschew.
- To invoke or pronounce a blessing upon (another or others); commend to God's favor or protection.
- To confer well-being upon; bestow happiness, prosperity, or good of any kind upon; make happy, prosperous, or fortunate; prosper with temporal or spiritual benefits: as, a nation blessed with peace and plenty.
- To favor (with); make happy or fortunate by some specified means: as, blessed with a good constitution; blessed with filial children.
- To praise or extol as holy or worthy of reverence, or
- as the giver of benefits; extol or glorify with thankful acknowledgment of benefits received.
- To esteem or account happy; congratulate; felicitate: used reflexively.
- [Often used in exclamations with various shades of meaning departing more or less widely from the literal sense: as, God bless me! bless you! bless the mark! etc.]
- To ejaculate “Bless me,” “God bless me,” or the like.
- To wound; hurt; beat; thump.
- [Appar. a deflection of sense Some fancy that it refers to “the old rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all parts of it” (see
bless ).] To wave; brandish.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate.
- transitive verb To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
- transitive verb To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
- transitive verb To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
- transitive verb Archaic To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self).
- transitive verb obsolete To guard; to keep; to protect.
- transitive verb To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
- transitive verb To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
- transitive verb obsolete To wave; to brandish.
- transitive verb an exclamation of surprise.
- transitive verb to secure, defend, or preserve from.
- transitive verb to favor or endow with; to be favored or endowed with.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To make something
blessed , to conferblessing upon. - verb transitive (past tense only blessed) To turn (a
reference ) into anobject . - interjection UK, informal Used as an expression of endearment, or (ironically) belittlement.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb give a benediction to
- verb render holy by means of religious rites
- verb make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on God for protection; consecrate
- verb confer prosperity or happiness on
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bless.
Examples
-
Inherent in the word bless is the desire for the salvation of that person.
Living on the Edge Chip Ingram 2009
-
I don’t use the word bless or curse very often, so I was unclear on what it meant to bless or curse someone.
Living on the Edge Chip Ingram 2009
-
The word bless, spoken of God, means to regard with favour, or to confer benefits, as when God is said to bless his people.
-
He spoke the word blessé, and I stopped to take him up and sped on again, glancing to right and left at the villages on fire, at the quick flashes of Belgian and
The Soul of the War Philip Gibbs 1919
-
Let us therefore bless the Lord, and again bless him; think and speak of his glory and goodness.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
-
He lays down his argument from the Lord's supper: The cup which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
-
And what about the prominence of the word bless which carries the meaning of ` exorcism, healing, remedy 'in Caribbean folk consciousness?
-
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
-
My family (which consists of a Mum, Dad & teenagers) & I will be praying along with Rick that God will again bless your country & that the renewing, saving love & grace of our Lord Jesus will be revived in your people’s hearts.
Rick Warren Chooses Silence - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2009
-
What know'st thou of the chief, men call the bless'd?
Iphigenia in Tauris 2008
tbtabby commented on the word bless
Means "goodbye" in Icelandic.
July 13, 2009