▪ I. blur, n.
(blɜː(r))
Forms: 6–7 blurre, 7– blurr, blur.
[Blur n. and vb. appear about the middle of the 16th c.: their mutual relation is doubtful, and the origin of both unknown: they have been conjecturally viewed as a variant of blear, and may perhaps be onomatopœic, combining the effect of blear and blot. The mod.Sc. is blore.]
1. A smear which partially obscures, made with ink or other colouring matter, or by brushing the surface of writing while still wet.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 306 With it a man may wash away any blots or blurs of ink. 1640 Quarles Enchirid. iii. xiii, He that clenses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blurre. 1665 Pepys Diary (1879) III. 151, I minded it so little as to sleep in the middle of my letter to him, and committed forty blotts and blurrs. 1705 in Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. I. 178 The Blots, Blurs, and Defacements of many of the Pages. 1871 Browning Pr. Hohenst. 392 Why keep each fool's bequeathment, scratch and blurr Which overscrawl and underscore the piece? |
2. fig. A stain which bedims moral or ideal purity, a blemish; an aspersion on character.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Luke xviii. 144 Sette a great blurre on myne honestie. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 222 This blur to youth. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. i. Wks. (1851) 21 These blurs are too apparent in his life. 1866 Cornh. Mag. May 557 The place from a distance, compared with the surrounding country, was a blur and a blemish as it were. 1883 Contemp. Rev. June 784 Many a blur of human error. |
3. An effect like that of blurred writing or painting; an indistinct blurred appearance; indistinctness, confused dimness.
| 1860 Emerson Cond. Life (1868) 281 The fine star-dust and nebulous blur of Orion. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 39 The vast blur of a north-northeast snow-storm. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 878 The face, to me One blurr of blank. |
▪ II. blur, v.
(blɜː(r))
[See prec.]
1. trans. To obscure or sully (what has been fair) by smearing with ink or other colouring liquid.
| 1592 Lyly Midas iv. ii, To blurre his diademe with blood. 1612 R. Carpenter Soules Sent. 54 His..black booke, blurde and blotted with the register of sin. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. ii. 20 A full paper blurred over with falsehoods. 1884 Browning Ferishtah 117 Blacks blur thy white? |
b. intr. To make blurs in writing.
| 1622 Mabbe Aleman's Guzman D'Alf. ii. 134 My pen did so blur, that I did despaire, to come off cleanly with it. 1689 Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 314, I see how I have blurred: but tis not worth the writing fairer. 1878 Browning Poets Croisic xxxvii, Over the neat crowquill calligraph His pen goes blotting, blurring. |
2. fig. To stain, sully, blot, or blemish the purity, beauty, or truth of (anything); to disfigure, befoul, defile, asperse.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. i. 39 Neuer yet did base dishonour blurre our name, But with our sword we wip'd away the blot. 1602 ― Ham. iii. iv. 41 Such an Act That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie. 1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 876 Sarcasms may eclipse thine own But cannot blur my lost renown. 1674 Flatman To Orinda 3 A weeping evening blurs a smiling day. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. V. 28 Irish history, blurred..with extravagancy and fable. 1825 Coleridge Lett., Convers. etc. II. 237 The human face divine is blurred and transfigured by being made the impress of the mean and selfish. 1885 W. C. Smith Kildrostan 74 To blur a father's memory. |
3. to blur out: to efface (writing, etc.) by blurring it. to blur over: to put out of sight, or obscure by a blur. Mostly fig.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 13 If the lively authoritie of the holy scriptures have so utterly quasshed and blurred out this bald ceremonie. 1621 Quarles Esther (1638) 123 And from remembrance blurre his Generation. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. Wks. 1738 I. 121 To blur over, rather than to mention that public triumph. 1663 Sir G. Mackenzie Relig. Stoic vii. (1685) 54 Blur the names..out of the Book of Life. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. i. iii. (1695) 25 Concerning innate Principles, I desire these Men to say, whether they can, or cannot..be blurr'd and blotted out. 1863 Alcock Capit. Tycoon I. 159 A constant tendency to blur out distinctions. |
4. To make indistinct and dim, as writing is by being blurred. Also fig.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 104 Time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of Fauour Which then he wore. 1681 Ess. Peace & Truth Ch. 2 The Blurring these Impressions. 1859 Tennyson Guinevere 5 One low light..Blurr'd by the creeping mist. 1871 Rossetti Stream's Secr. viii, Thine eddy's rippling race Would blur the perfect image of his face. |
5. transf. a. To dim (the sight or other senses, the perception, or judgement), so that they no longer receive or form distinct impressions.
| c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 112 Feare..blurres your senses. 1791 Cowper Iliad xx. 392 With shadows dim he blurr'd the sight Of Peleus' son. 1871 Rossetti Staff & Scrip xxvii, Our sense is blurr'd With all the chants gone by. 1878 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 264 Social equity in which charity is not allowed to blur judgment. |
b. intr. To become blurred (to one's perceptions).
| 1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh vii. 290 But presently the winding Rhone Washed out the moonlight large along his banks..shadow of town and castle blurred Upon the hurrying river. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere I. viii. 234 The calm, simple outlines of things are blurring before her eyes; the great placid deeps of the soul are breaking up. 1950 E. Hemingway Across River & into Trees iii. 15 They were on a straight stretch of road now and were making time so that one farm blended, almost blurred, into another farm and you could only see what was far ahead and moving towards you. 1964 J. Didion Run, River ix. 80 She watched the street lights blur through the blown branches. 1985 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Oct. b25/3 Roles in the information world are blurring. |
6. Comb., as † blur-paper, a writer who merely blurs paper; a scribbler.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. xxxii. (1632) 404 Scriblers and blur-papers which now adayes stuffe Stationers shops. |
¶ Cf. blare, blore v.
| 1611 Cotgr., Grailler, to winde a Horne hollowly; to blurre a Trumpet. |