▪ I. ˈsand-blast, n.
[f. sand n.2 + blast n.1]
1. A contrivance for depolishing or grinding glass, stone, wood or hard metal by means of a jet of sand impelled by compressed air or steam. Also attrib., esp. sand-blast process.
| 1871 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. 155 An engraving produced by the use of the sand-blast... This is then passed beneath the sand-blast, and the cutting obtained. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 136/1 Permanent Tablets, being texts and mottoes..engraved by the Sand-blast process. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Sand Blast Sharpening, the sharpening of files by the direction of a current of sand and water across the teeth. |
2. A blast of sandy or sand-laden wind or liquid. Also attrib.
| 1898 T. Watts-Dunton Aylwin xii. iv, Hot and stifling as sand-blasts of the desert. 1913 V. B. Lewes Oil Fuel iii. 69 A big gusher would, by sand-blast action, cut through the chilled steel shields in a few days. |
▪ II. ˈsand-blast, v.
[f. sand n.2 + blast v.; cf. sand-blast n.]
To subject to a blast of sand or the like, esp. so as to clean or polish. Also fig.
| 1888 Texas Siftings 6 Oct. 6/3 ‘Sleigh-bells! Well, I'll be sand blasted!’ said the business man. ‘What do you mean by trying to sell sleigh-bells in this section of the country? Don't you know it never snows here?’ 1924 Jrnl. Inst. Metals XXXII. 294 The present-day practice is to sand-blast almost every article which is to be metal sprayed. 1939 A. K. Lobeck Geomorphol. xi. 376 (caption) The sand grains have been sand-blasted away but the more durable binding silica..has resisted the attack. 1972 Timber Trades Jrnl. 3 June 47/1 The metal surfaces to be coated are first sand-blasted to remove grease and impurities. 1979 H. McCloy Smoking Mirror 176 The old buildings..had been sand-blasted to preserve their fabric. |
Hence ˈsand-blasted ppl. a., scored by wind-driven sand; ˈsand-blaster, (a) a workman who uses sand-blast; (b) = sand-blast 1; ˈsand-blasting vbl. n.
| 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 89 Glass Sand Blaster. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 257/1 Sand blasting is another method of producing an etched effect upon glass. 1908 Edin. Rev. July 82 In Triassic times England itself was a desert, as the sand-blasted granite boulders of Charnwood Forest attest. 1920 Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) XXXV. 518 (heading) The efficiency of certain devices used for the protection of sand blasters against the dust hazard. 1935 H. R. Simonds Finishing Metal Products xii. 105 The term ‘sand blasting’ is commonly used to describe the application of an abrasive material under pressure to surfaces to be cleaned or otherwise treated. Even when steel grit is used as the abrasive, the term ‘sand blasting’ is frequently retained. 1937 U. R. Evans Metallic Corrosion Passivity & Protection xiii. 545 A roughened (sand-blasted) surface appears necessary for good adhesion. 1974 Nature 5 Apr. 502/1 Abraiding freshly made implements in a tumbling mill, or sandblaster. 1975 M. Bradbury Hist. Man iii. 44 Another [student] brought a sand-blaster and cleaned off the walls of the basement. 1975 New Yorker 19 May 11/3 (Advt.), Polished and sandblasted stainless-steel sculptures. 1976 ‘Trevanian’ Main (1977) iv. 76 The sandblasters have cleaned..a fa{cced}ade that used to bear the comfortable patina of soot... For months now, they have been sand-blasting the building. 1977 New Yorker 24 Oct. 42/1 Dissolution, leaching, sandblasting, cracking and melting of fireproof doors. |