▪ I. blandish, v.
(ˈblændɪʃ)
Forms: 4 blandise, -isshe, -ische, blaundise, -isshe, bloundise, -iss, 4–6 blaundysh, 5 blandysh(e, -yss, -yssh, blaundish, -iss, -yssh, 6 ? blandesh, Sc. blandyis, 5– blandish.
[a. F. blandiss- lengthened stem of blandir:—L. blandīri to flatter, f. blandus smooth, soft: see -ish2. Rare in 17th and 18th c.: Johnson says ‘I have met with this word in no other passage’ than the quotation from Milton (see blandished).]
1. trans. To flatter gently by kind words or affectionate actions, to coax; to act upon with caressing action or complaisant speech; to cajole.
| c 1305 [see blandishing vbl. n.] c 1430 Lydg. Bochas i. viii. (1544) 15 b, She can them blandishen with her flatery. c 1530 Proverbs in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 31 Allso repelle that seruavnte that vsith to blaundysh the. 1748 Richardson Clarissa II. xi. 68 You must then blandish him over with a confession, that all your past behaviour was maidenly reserve only. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. v, By this fairest of Orient Light-bringers must our Friend be blandished. 1837 ― Fr. Rev. II. iii. vii. ii. 353 To blandish down the grimness of Republican austerity. |
b. fig. Of things.
| 1758 J. G. Cooper Aristippus i. (R.) In former days a country life..Was blandish'd by perpetual spring. |
2. intr. (absol.) To use blandishments; to act or speak with gentle allurement or flattery.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter i. 1 He spekis of crist & of his folouers, bloundisand til vs. Ibid. xc. 13 The dragoun..that bloundiss with the heuyd and smytes with the tayle. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. 302 If he flatere or blandise [v.r. blaundise, blandisshe, blaundisshe, blandische] moore than hym oghte for any necessite. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 220 How shee blandishing, By Dunsmore drives along. |
† 3. trans. To offer blandly (cf. to smile thanks).
| c 1630 Drummond of Hawthornden Wks. 11 Though they [flowers] sometime blandish soft delight. a 1638 R. James Wks. (1880) 254 That knew not how to menace speare, Or blandish words that ravish sense. |
▪ II. † ˈblandish, n. Obs. rare.
Blandishment.
| c 1475 Found. St. Barthol. i. ix. (1886) 91 When with flaterynge blandysh, a goodwhyle she hadde flateryd. |