▪ I. bloom, n.1
(bluːm)
Forms: 3–4 blom, 3–6 blome, 4–6 Sc. blwme, 6 bloume, Sc. blume, 6–7 bloome, 7– bloom.
[ME. blom, blome, only northern (or north. midl.); a. ON. blóm neut. ‘a flower, bloom, blossom’, and blómi masc. ‘bloom, prosperity’, pl. ‘flowers, blossoms’, the latter = OS. blômo masc. (MDu. bloeme, Du. bloem fem.), OHG. bluomo masc., bluoma fem. (MHG. bluome masc. and fem., mod.G. blume fem.), Goth. blôma m.:—OTeut. *blômon- m., from the vb. stem *blō̆- ‘blow’, with the suffix -mon- of nouns of action. The OE. blôma (masc.), in form the same word, had only the sense of bloom n.2, the sense ‘flower’ being expressed by blóstm, blóstma, blósma, blossom.]
1. a. The blossom or flower of a plant. (Not extended like ‘flower’ to a whole ‘flowering plant’, and expressing a more delicate notion than ‘blossom’, which is more commonly florescence bearing promise of fruit, while ‘bloom’ is florescence thought of as the culminating beauty of the plant. Cherry trees are said to be in blossom, hyacinths in bloom.)
c 1200 Ormin 10773 Nazaræþ bitacneþþ uss Onn Ennglissh brodd and blome. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1467 Alle þe blomes of þe boȝes were blyknande perles. 1375 Barbour Bruce v. 10 The treis begouth to ma Burg⁓conys and brycht blwmys alsua. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Blome flowre, flos. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 296 The fruytes of the holy goost..be more lyke..to be called blomes and floures than fruytes. 1570 Sempill Ballates (1872) 77 Thou grene Roismary hyde thy heid, Schaw not thy fair blew blumis. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 25 How the Bee Sits on the Bloom extracting liquid sweet. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 273 If od'rous Blooms the bearing Branches load. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 4 Parting summer's ling'ring blooms. 1882 Bazaar 15 Feb. 173 To preserve cut blooms for some length of time. |
† b. (fig.) to bear the bloom: to flourish. Obs.
1330 R. Brunne Chron. 322 Þei were born in Rome alle þe Columpneis, Þat kynde bare þe blome, riche men & curteis. |
c. collect. Blossom, flowers, florescence.
a 1300 Cursor M. 9328 Þe wand bar lef and frut and blom. a 1400 Sir Isumb. 176 Playe the with the blome. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 43 Not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn, Or sight of vernal bloom. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 840 The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom. 1878 R. W. Gilder Poet & Master 14 Not yet the orchard lifted Its cloudy bloom to the sky. |
d. in bloom: in flower, flowering, blossoming.
1644 J. Fary God's Severity (1645) 8 Blossomes that be all in a bloome, as we say. 1735 Oldys Life Ralegh Wks. 1829 I. 383 Like some flowers which are sweeter in their fall than others in their bloom. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 182 It was the month of May, when every thing was in bloom. 1864 Tennyson Islet 32 For the bud ever breaks into bloom on the tree. |
e. transf. of persons. Cf. ‘flower’.
a 1300 Havelok 63 He was Engelondes blome. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 81 Welcom, Mary, blyssed blome. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies iv. 32 The frailty of so fair a bloom. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 4 A chosen array, rare bloom of valorous Argos. |
2. fig. State of greatest beauty or loveliness, most flourishing condition or season, prime, perfection.
c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 577 More haf I of ioye & blysse here-inne, Of ladyschyp gret & lyuez blom. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 76 Despight..His Maie of youth, and bloome of lustihood. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 164 ¶3 While her Beauty was yet in all its Height and Bloom. 1742 Pope Dunciad iv. 513 Poor W., nipp'd in folly's broadest bloom, Who praises now? 1850 J. Leitch tr. Müller's Anc. Art §159 The real bloom of this art was past when the Romans conquered the East. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life vi. i. (1876) 195 The bloom of perfect manhood. |
3. a. The crimson tint of the cheek; flush, glow. Also fig.
1752 Fielding Amelia Wks. 1775 X. 136 Miss Bath had not only recovered her health but her bloom. 1793 T. Beddoes Consumption 117 That vermilion bloom, which..is the harbinger or attendant of an incurable disease. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 364 Over brow And cheek and bosom brake the wrathful bloom. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 332 Those simple, faithful natures which combine the glow of courage with the bloom of modesty. |
b. gen. Suffusion of glowing colour over a surface.
1832 L. Hunt Sir R. Esher (1850) 142 The colours of the awnings over head struck down a bloom over the whole scene. |
4. a. The delicate powdery deposit on fruits like the grape, plum, etc., when fresh-gathered, and on certain plant-leaves. (So called perh. from prec.)
Cf. Song. Meet me in the evening When the bloom is on the rye.
a 1639 [see bloomy a.1 3]. 1678 [see bloom-coloured in 7]. 1755 Johnson, Bloom, the blue colour upon plums and grapes newly gathered. 1860 Delamer Kitch. Gard. (1861) 156 Tying grapes in muslin bags assists their ripening..The pity is, that the taking them off spoils the bloom. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 99 Very frequently the wax extends..over the cuticle..constituting the so-called ‘bloom’ on fruits and some leaves. 1883 P. Fitzgerald Recreat. Lit. Man 170 And before the end of those weary hours the bloom is off the rye—he is stale and stupid. |
b. fig. Freshness, delicate charm or beauty. to take the bloom off (a thing): to deprive it of its first freshness or beauty.
1777 Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 159 It [the Plan of Dictionary] would have come out with more bloom if it had not been seen before by any body. 1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. 182 The bloom of his regard would be rubbed off. |
c. In various spec. senses, e.g. The yellowish deposit on well-tanned leather, the powdery appearance on newly-struck coins, the fluorescence exhibited by petroleum, etc. Also, the cloudy appearance on a varnished surface. Cf. blooming vbl. n.1 2.
1842 Penny Cycl. XXIV. 38/2 This bloom [on leather] consists of the finer portion of the gelatin from the interior of the skin. 1882 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. 343 Petroleum having a bloom or fluorescence. 1884 Times 1 Mar., The ‘bloom’ on the wall..around the actual spot of the explosion, was sufficient to show that the material used was not gunpowder. 1885 Eng. Mech. 20 Feb. 532 Until the bud is covered with ‘bloom’, or the so-called ellagic acid. 1885 Cornh. Mag. Mar. 281 That coating of indigo and gypsum which imparts [to tea leaves] the bloom so highly prized in the European market. 1886 in Ogilvie Imperial Dict. 1953 Gloss. Paint Terms (B.S.I.) 6 Bloom, a thin film which sometimes forms on glossy paint or varnish films, thereby dimming their lustre or veiling their depth of colour. |
d. (See quots.)
1908 Animal Managem. 134 In no case should..the work [be] so hard, that the colt's ‘bloom’, i.e., his round and glossy sleekness, disappears. 1952 C. L. B. Hubbard Pembrokeshire Corgi Handbook 108 Bloom, glossiness or good sheen of coat. |
e. = water-bloom.
1939 B. M. Griffiths in Proc. Linn. Soc. CLI. 13 In 1838 Drummond gave a description of the greenish bloom on Glaslough, Co. Monaghan. 1948 Hydrobiologia I. 1 About 65 species [of algae] are known to cause ‘blooms’ in lakes. 1957 Penguin New Biol. XXIII. 87 At least two early chroniclers have recorded that the occurrence of a red bloom..forewarned of the untimely death of William Rufus. 1969 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 16 May 32/1 Dr. Parsons said that although the deep Pacific was uneconomical, similar plankton blooms had been found at the juncture of the Fraser River and the sea. |
5. A fine variety of raisin.
1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 274/1 Different kinds of raisins are distinguished..as muscatels, blooms, sultanas. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 692 These are muscatels or blooms. |
6. Used attributively to denote a certain appearance or state assumed by sugar in the process of clarifying and refining.
1825 S. & S. Adams Compl. Servant 113 It may then be boiled to any degree you please, as smooth, bloom, feathered, crackled, and caramel. |
7. The perfume exhaled from wine, bouquet.
1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 602/2 The smell common to all wines (which remains in an empty wine cask after the bloom proper has gone). |
8. Comb. and attrib., as bloom-colour, bloom-flinder, bloom-hour, bloom-stem; bloom-bright, bloom-coloured, etc., adjs. Also bloom-fell, a plant; according to Britten and Holland, Lotus corniculatus.
1833 Tennyson Hesperides, A slope That ran *bloom-bright into the Atlantic blue. |
1797–1804 T. Bewick Brit. Birds I. 112 The breast, belly and sides are of a fine pale rose or *bloom colour. |
1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1273/4 The Hood lined with *bloom-coloured Silk. |
1799–1824 Prize Ess. in Highl. Soc. Trans. III. 524 (Jam.) Ling, deer-hair, and *bloom-fell, are also scarce. |
1840 Browning Sordello iii. 345 Her ivory limbs are smothered by a fall, *Bloom-flinders, and fruit-sparkles, and leaf-dust. |
1850 Lynch Theo. Trin. xi. 208 The maiden..in the *bloom-hour of her life. |
▪ II. bloom, n.2
(bluːm)
[:—OE. blóma in same sense; identical in form with the word for ‘flower’ in the other Teut. langs. (OS. blômo, etc.: see bloom n.1), but the history of the sense is not ascertained. No examples of the word have been found between OE. times and the end of 16th c.]
1. ‘A mass of iron after having undergone the first hammering.’ Weale. spec. An ingot of iron or steel, or a pile of puddled bars, which has been brought, by passing through one set of ‘rolls’, into the form of a thick bar, and left for further rolling when required for use.
a 1000 in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 141/36 Massa, dað, uel bloma. 1584 [cf. bloomery]. 1674 Ray Iron Work 127 At the Finery by the working of the hammer they bring it into Blooms and Anconies. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 163 They work it into a bloom, which is a square barr in the middle, and two square knobs at the ends, one much less then the other, the smaller being call'd the Ancony end, and the greater the Mocket head. 1719 Glossogr. Nova, Bloom, in the Iron-Works, is a four-square Mass of Iron about two Foot long. 1845 New Statist. Acc. Scotl. VI. 79 An extensive forge for the manufacture of blooms was erected. 1862 Times 12 Aug., Lord Dudley presents numerous specimens of fractured blooms and bars. 1881 Academy 6 Nov. 350 It may possibly be a ‘bloom’ from a prehistoric foundry. 1882 Engineer 24 Feb. 133/1 The blooms from the hammer are then heated and rolled down to make puddled bar. |
¶ 2. Sometimes improperly applied to the ‘ball’ or mass of iron from the puddling furnace which is to be hammered or shingled into a bloom.
1865 Derby Merc. 15 Feb., An immense bloom of iron, looking like a huge egg, and weighing 5 cwt., showing the state of the iron as delivered by the furnace. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 1013 The bloom or rough ball from the puddle-furnace. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 410 After pig-iron has been puddled, the ‘blooms’, as the masses of iron are termed, while still white-hot from the puddling furnace, are dragged to the helve. |
3. Comb., as bloom-shearing; bloom-hook, an implement used for handling heated blooms; so bloom-tongs; bloom-smithy, a forge or smithy where blooms are made.
1601 Holland Pliny I. 459 This kind of charcole serueth only the Bloom-smithies and furnaces. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 18 At the suppression of the bloomaries (or iron smithies) the tenants charged themselves with the payment of this rent, which is called Bloom Smithy, or Wood rent. 1884 Imp. & Mach. Rev. 1 Dec. 6719/2 A large bloom⁓shearing machine, capable of cutting steel blooms. |
▪ III. † bloom, n.3 Obs. rare—1.
[App. connected with blow v.1; cf. bloomy a.2]
A hot wind.
1699 W. Dampier Voy. I. 529 I have always observed the Sea-winds to be warmer than Land-winds; unless it be when a bloom, as we call it, or hot blast blow from thence. |
▪ IV. bloom, v.1
(bluːm)
Forms: 3–5 blome(n, (4 Sc. bleume), 5 blomyn, blume, 5–6 blome, bloume, 6 bloome, (7 blowm, 8 Sc. blume), 7– bloom.
[ME. blomen, f. bloom n.1]
1. intr. To bear flowers; to be in flower, come into flower; to blossom.
c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2061 Orest it blomede, and siðen bar ðe beries ripe. a 1300 Cursor M. 10743 Þat his wand suld blome. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxiv. (1495) 641 In Thessalia feildes that beenes growe in ben eerid whan the beenys bloume. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 40 Blomyn, floreo, floescor. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §24 Hasell..begynneth to blome as soon as the lefe is fallen. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 355 A Flour which once In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life Began to bloom. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Coriander, This Plant..blooms in July and August. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 170 Blue thistles bloomed in cities. |
2. fig. and transf. To come into full beauty; to be in fresh beauty and vigour; to flourish.
c 1200 Ormin 3636 Godess þeowwess blomenn aȝȝ Inn alle gode þæwess. c 1425 Festivals Ch. 245 in Leg. Rood 218 A childe þat choisly chees In maydenes blode to blome. 1513 Douglas æneis xi. xii. 103 Forgane the speris so bustuus blomyt he. 1590 Greene Fr. Bacon (1830) 42 For fancie bloomes not at the first assault. 1738 Glover Leonidas i. 224 With all my honours blooming round my head. 1759 Johnson Rasselas xxviii. (1787) 81 The daughter begins to bloom before the mother can be content to fade. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vi, Life bloomed up with happiness and hope. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 486 Your beauty is fading away, just as your true self is beginning to bloom. 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre 2 Quadrille also has faded away, or blooms only in some old-fashioned nooks of England. |
3. trans. To bring into bloom; to cause to flourish. Chiefly fig. Obs. or arch.
1592 Greene Poems 108 Each fair thing that summer bloomed. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. iii. §4 Rites & customs..in their first original beginnings when the strength of virtuous, devout, or charitable affection bloomed them. 1611 Bible Numb. xvii. 8 The rod of Aaron..brought forth buds, and bloomed blossomes. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 219 The Tree of Life..blooming Ambrosial Fruit Of vegetable Gold. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 385 Tenderness divine..That planted Eden, and high bloom'd for man A fairer Eden. |
4. intr. To glow with warm colour.
1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §11. 75 Heaps of snow..as the day advanced, bloomed with a rosy light. 1884 Christm. Graphic 4/2 A little salon, in which a circular iron stove bloomed red-hot all round. |
5. trans. To give a bloom to; to colour with a soft warm tint or glow.
a 1821 Keats Autumn 25 While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day. 1844 Tupper Prov. Philos. (1852) 179 The eye is bright with trust, the cheek bloomed over with affection. |
6. techn. To cloud a varnished surface. (See quot., and cf. blooming vbl. n.1 2.)
1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 214 Whatever varnish may be employed..a current of cold or damp air, which ‘chills’ or ‘blooms’ them [paintings] should be avoided. |
▪ V. bloom, v.2
[f. bloom n.2]
To hammer or squeeze the ball or lump of iron from the puddle-furnace into a ‘bloom’; to shingle.
1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 1012 To prepare the puddle balls for the rolling mills, they have to undergo the process of ‘shingling’ or ‘blooming;’ this is effected either by the hammer or by the squeezer: the latter has almost entirely superseded the former. |