▪ I. blaze, n.1
(bleɪz)
Forms: 1 blæse, 1–7 blase, 3 blass, 6– blaze; north. and Sc. 3–6 bles(e, 4 blose, 6 bleis(e, bleiss, 7– bleeze.
[OE. blase, blæse, wk. fem., chiefly in sense of ‘torch’ (OTeut. type *blasôn-), is cogn. w. MHG. blas neut., a torch, with OHG. blass, mod.G. blass ‘pale, whitish’ (originally ‘shining’), and with blaze n.2 The northern forms with ē probably originated in a lengthening of the vowel of OE. blæse.]
† 1. A torch, firebrand. Obs.
c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 126 Lampas, blase. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xviii. 3 Iudas..com þyder mid leohtfatum & mid blasum. 1160 Hatton G. ibid. Blesen, v.r. bleosum. 1513 Douglas æneis iv. x. 87 The feirfull brandis and blesis of hait fyre, Reddy to birne thi schippis. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 332 Sa mony bleises into the tyme hes brint Of pik and tar. |
2. a. A bright glowing flame or fire. in a blaze (on blaze obs.): on fire, in flames.
a 1000 Guthlac (Gr.) 648 In bælblæsan. c 1205 Lay. 2859 In þere temple he lette beornen enne blase of fure. a 1300 Cursor M. 8877 Vte o þat tre it brast a blese (other MSS. blass, blase) Þat brent þam al wit-in a rese. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xvii. 212 A torche, The blase þere-of yblowe out. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 244 They setten all on blase. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. ix. 129 A fell bleiss of thundir. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus ii. 12 It is as fire in straw, a blase and away. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 331 A few withered dry sticks, with which they made a blaze. 1857 Willmott Pleas. Lit. xi. 46 The strongest blaze soon goes out when a man always blows and never feeds it. |
b. (slang.) blazes: pl. referring to the flames of hell, used in several forcible expressions, as blue blazes, the blazes! like blazes: furiously, impetuously. to (the) blazes: to perdition, ‘to the deuce’; used in imprecations.
1818 ‘A. Burton’ Johnny Newcome 41 They thought he must be mad as blazes. 1818 M. L. Weems Drunkard's Looking Glass (ed. 6) 49 Ye steep down gulphs of liquid fire! Ye blue blazes of damnation! 1837 Dickens Pickw. liv. 587 How the blazes you can stand the head-work you do, is a mystery to me. 1838 ― O. Twist 91 What the blazes is in the wind now? 1845 Disraeli Sybil (Rtldg.) 284 She sets her face against gals working in mills like blazes. 1853 De Quincey Sp. Nun Wks. 1862 III. 84 The horse..went like blazes. 1853 Dickens in Househ. Words 5 Feb. 483/2 Letting the teeth go (to Blazes, he observed indefinitely). 1858 S. A. Hammett Piney Woods Tavern 37 And the two Jacobs swore like blue blazes agin him. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. I. x. 160 What the Blue Blazes is he? 1924 G. L. Mallory Let. 7 May in E. F. Norton Fight for Everest (1925) 231 The moral of A party had gone to blazes. 1925 W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xiii. §1. 119 When you have found out what you want to do—then go at it like blazes. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident ix. 121 What the blue blazes is all this? |
† c. A ‘flash’ (of lightning), a moment. Obs.
1590 Greene Never too late (1600) 71 Lightning, that beautifies the heauen for a blaze. |
3. fig. A sudden kindling up of passion as of a fire; a violent outburst.
[a 1240 Ureisun in Lamb. Hom. 185 Ontend me wiþ þe blase of þi leitinde loue.] 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 33 His rash fierce blaze of Ryot cannot last. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. iv. v. 105 Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes To tender obiects. 1646 Buck Rich. III, i. 15 The Blaze of Ambition. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 4 ¶10 There is danger lest the blaze of charity..should die away. 1874 Stoughton Ch. of Rev. xii. 279 Which fanned the Lower House into a blaze of resentment. |
4. Brilliant light, brightness, brilliancy; a glow of bright colour.
1564 Harrington To Isabella Markham 4 Eyes that mock the diamonds blaze. 1586 M. Roydon Elegy 169 in Spenser's Wks. (1842) V. 283 The blaze whereof when Mars beheld. 1671 Milton Samson 80 O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon. 1801 Southey Thalaba x. xiv, The rich geranium's scarlet blaze. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 587 The theatres were..one blaze of orange ribands. |
5. fig. a. = blazing star 2, cynosure.
1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 102 Thy beautie hath made thee the blaze of Italy. |
b. Glory, splendour, brilliant display.
1579 Lyly Euphues 180 ‘Beauty, where is thy blaze?’ 1712 Addison Spect. No. 369 ¶8 A most glorious Blaze of Poetical Images. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xcviii, Sadness flings Her shadow on the blaze of kings. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) II. 169 Enveloping in a blaze of jests the most serious matters. |
c. Clear or full light, as of noon.
1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. i. 3 Now to your regret, pushed into blaze, as I may say. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. II. i. 64 The blaze of publicity. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 150 In the full blaze of contemporary knowledge. |
6. Physiol. An electric current passing along living tissue in response to mechanical stimulus. Also attrib. in blaze current. Hence blaze reaction, blaze response, reaction or response so obtained.
1902 Nature 18 Sept. 491/2 The blaze reaction..requires short strong currents for its manifestation. 1903 Ibid. 9 July 238 This ‘blaze’ response is the algebraic sum of post-anodic and post-kathodic currents. 1903 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. Oct. 599 A crystalline lens is a good object upon which to study the nature of blaze-currents. |
7. In poker: (see quot.). U.S.
1880 ‘Trumps’ Amer. Hoyle (ed. 13) 197 Blaze. This hand consists of five court cards, and, when it is played, beats two pairs. |
8. Comb., as blaze-trailing.
1809 J. Barlow Columb. vii. 231 Blaze-trailing fuses vault the night's dim round. |
▪ II. blaze, n.2
(bleɪz)
[Appears first in 17th c.; no corresponding form occurs in OE. or ME. But clearly identical with ON. blesi ‘white star on a horse's forehead,’ MDu. blesse, Du. bles, mod.G. blässe, blesse, all in same sense, from stem blas-, blaz- shining, white; cf. OHG. blass whitish, MHG. blas bald, mod.G. blasz pale. It is possible that the ON. word was adopted in north. dial., and thence passed at a later date into general use; but the Du. or LG. form may also have been introduced as a technical term c 1600.
(In either case the spelling has to be explained: the regular repr. of ON. blesi would have been blese, bleeze; if this occurred in north dial., it would be identical with the northern form of blaze1, and might, like it, be made blaze in the literary language; if adapted from Du. or LG., blaze must be a phonetic spelling.)]
1. A white spot on the face of a horse or ox. Also of other animals.
1639 De Grey Compl. Horsem. 23 If the blaze be not too broad. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. vii. 128 A black bull..with a fair square blaze in his forehead. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2030/4 A black Mare about 12 or 13 hands high, having a Blaze in her right Eye. 1850 Cumming S. Afr. ix. 53/1 The blesbok..is one of the true antelopes... A broad white band, or ‘blaze’, adorns the entire length of its face. 1858 Hughes Scour. White Horse 17 If it wasn't for the blaze in her face, and the white feet. 1884 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 170/2 Herefords with great ‘blazes’ of white on their honest faces. 1952 C. L. B. Hubbard Pembrokeshire Corgi Handbk. x. 108 Blaze, a white (usually bulbous) marking running up the centre of the head. |
2. transf. A white mark made on a tree, generally by chipping off a slice of bark, to indicate a path or boundary in a forest; also a track indicated by a line of such marks. (First in U.S.) Also attrib. in blaze-mark.
1662 in Groton Rec. (1880) 7 The meetinge house shall be set..by a small whit oak marked at the souwest side with two notches and a blaze. 1737 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 68 We then found another blaze and pursued it. 1813 Mrs. Schimmelpennick tr. C. Lancelot's Tour (1816) I. 123 A little blaze here and there, on particular trees, is the only direction. 1820 Southey Wesley I. 123. 1822 De Quincey Confess. (1862) 243 A blaze of white paint upon a certain elite of the trees marked out by the forester as ripe for the axe. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. viii. iii. (1849) 365 We had come to the sixth mile blaize, a boundary mark on a pine. 1885 Pall Mall G. 7 May 4/2 Tracked by the land surveyor's blazes on the huge trunks. 1885 Mrs. C. Praed Head Station xlvi, Here were new blaze-marks; and here, upon a bottle-tree,—the bark unhealed—that old trace of Durnford's tomahawk. |
▪ III. blaze, v.1
(bleɪz)
Forms: 3 blas-ie(n, 4–5 blas-en, 5 -yn, 4–6 blase, 5–7 blaise, -ze, 6– blaze; Sc. 5–6 blese, 6–7 bleise, 8– bleeze. pa. tense and pple. blazed.
[f. blaze n.1: no corresp. vb. in OE., or in any other Teut. lang.]
1. a. intr. To burn with a bright fervent flame. Often with away, forth, out. to blaze up: to burst or flash into a blaze.
a 1225 Ancr. R. 296 Al þet hus blasie uorð er me lest wene. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 185 A kyx oþer a candele Þat cauht haþ fuyr, and blaseþ. 1393 Gower Conf. I. 258 The sparke..blaseth out on every side. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. iv. 30 The altar blesand of hayt fyre. 1570 Levins Manip. 36 Blase, efflammare. 1718 Pope Iliad ii. 369 We raised Our verdant altars, and the victims blazed. 1790 Burns Tam O'Shant., Fast by an ingle bleezing finely. 1813 Scott Rokeby ii. xx, When that spark blazed forth to flame. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §16. 106 In one of these [clefts] a pine-fire was soon blazing briskly. |
b. transf. Said of the place lighted by the blaze.
1876 Green Short Hist. vii. §6 (1882) 408 The streets of London blazed with bonfires. |
2. trans. To cause to blaze, to give to the flames. rare. to blaze up: to set a-blaze.
c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 745 They be blasyd both body and hals. c 1525 Skelton Replyc. 294 Doutlesse ye shall be blased And be brent at a stake. 1865 Sat. Rev. 16 Dec. 754 If some new Guy Faux were to succeed in blazing up the Houses of Lords and Commons. |
3. intr. To burn with the fervour of devotion, excitement, or passion: said of persons and their feelings. to blaze up: to ‘fire up’ in wrath.
a 1225 Ancr. R. 426 Luue is Jesu Cristes fur þet he wule þet blasie in vre heorte. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 188 Til þe holy gost by-gynne to glowen and blase. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. iv. 71, I need not adde more fuell to your fire, For well I wot, ye blaze to burne them out. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 306 His anger too easily blazed forth. 1878 Seeley Stein. III. 528 Stein..blazed up, and there was an exchange of hot words. |
4. to blaze out (trans.): to cause to flare away, to exhaust in a blaze of passion or excess (arch.); (intr.) to go out with a flare, subside from its blaze.
1779 Johnson Rochester, L.P. (1816) 179 He..blazed out his youth and his health in lavish voluptuousness. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 718 He blazed out his life. 1884 L'pool. Daily Post 27 June 5 The temporary excitement..had blazed out, and numbers were leaving the House. |
5. a. intr. To shine like flame or fire; to shine brightly, glitter, be resplendent. Also with forth.
1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxi. 243 Tho þis barn was ybore þer blased a sterre. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. iv. (1495) 553 It is kyndly that shynynge of metall blase the more yf they be shynyd wyth other lyght. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 194 Eyes That sparkling blaz'd. 1718 Pope Iliad ii. 527 The dreadful aegis..Blazed on her arm. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ix, But Half-men, in whom that divine handwriting has never blazed forth. 1835 Lytton Rienzi ix. i. 371 Robed in scarlet that literally blazed with gold. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile xxi. 608 The sun blazing over head. |
b. trans. with cognate object.
1667 Milton P.L. x. 65 The Father..on the Son Blaz'd forth unclouded Deitie. 1697 Congreve Mourn. Bride i. iii, All conspired to blaze promiscuous light. |
6. intr. To shine or be conspicuous with brilliancy of character, splendour of position or talents, grandeur, renown. Also with out.
1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. I. 5 Blaseþ and schineþ clerliche þe riȝt rule of þewes. 1639 Fuller Holy War ii. xxx. (1840) 89 The less his fame blazed, the more his devotion burned. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Wks. I. 170 In this description..the terrible and sublime blaze out together. 1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. I. i. 20 To blaze out into a successful marriage. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. iii. iv. 158 Cardinal Albert Kur-Mainz..blazes widely abroad, in the busy reign of Karl V. |
† 7. trans. ? To dazzle or daze with light; fig. to blind. Obs.
c 1450 Henryson Moral Fables 34 The fauour of thy face, For thy defence is foule and disfigurate, Brought to the light, blased, blunt and blate. 1570 Piththy Note Papists (Collier) 15 As thogh Ye would the People blase, And make them think I did not wel: this said he without maze. |
8. intr. to blaze away: to fire continuously with guns or artillery; fig. to work at anything with enthusiastic vigour (colloq.). Cf. fire away. Also to blaze (out) at.
1776 Battle of Brooklyn (1873) ii. p. i, We bid them stand and blazed away like brave boys. 1826 Sheridaniana 331 Sheridan blazed away, right and left. 1843 Dickens in Life 141 I went at it again, and..blazed away till 9 last night. 1857 Livingstone vii. 140 We..blazed away at the lions. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi lix. 531 The elements..banged and blazed away in the most blind and frantic manner. 1909 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 76 He had just bought a Mauser, and blazed at everything with it. 1914 Ibid. 173 They all grabbed rifles & revolvers, & through the windows blazed out at everyone they saw. |
9. trans. to blaze (off): to cause (the grease) to flash in the operation of tempering steel; also, of the grease, to flash; to temper (steel) by this process. Hence ˈblazing (off) vbl. n.
1823 New Monthly Mag. IX. 121 The cast steel articles..may be quenched in this composition, in order to harden them; and then be blazed off. 1860 Tomlinson Useful Arts & Manuf. Ser. ii. 36 Large saws..are moved backwards and forwards over the fire till the unctuous matter adhering to the surface of the saw begins to ignite or ‘blaze-off’. Ibid. 37 During this ‘blazing off’, the saw is removed from the furnace and allowed to cool. 1885 Spons' Mech. Own Bk. 66 They are then heated..till the grease inflames. This is called being ‘blazed’. |
▸ trans. slang (chiefly U.S.). To smoke (marijuana); to light up (a pipe or cigarette containing marijuana). Also intr. Usu. with up.
1985J. Hughes Breakfast Club (shooting draft of film script) 47 in www.dailyscript.com (O.E.D. Archive) Brian gives Bender his bag of Marajuana [sic]... Andrew Yo waist-oid..you're not gonna blaze up in here! 1994 P. Baker Blood Posse xvii. 195 The lighting in the basement suddenly went dim as he blazed the pipe. 1997‘Crucial Conflict’ Hay (song) in D. Ravitch & J. P. Viteritti Kid Stuff (2003) v. 113 Pass the hay..you silly slut, Blaze it up so I can hit that bud. 2003 V. Bogdanov et al. All Music Guide to Hip-hop 57/2 Blazing up insane amounts of chronic. 2004B. Tripp in A. Cockburn & J. St. Clair Serpents in Garden 39 We are a nation of quiet stoners, blazing up and smoking out in peace and harmony. |
▪ IV. blaze, v.2
(bleɪz)
Forms: 4–5 blas-en, 5 blasin, -yn, 6–7 blase, 6– blaze. pa. tense and pple. blazed (pa. pple. once in 6 blasen; cf. Ger. geblasen, Du. geblazen blown).
[In sense 1 apparently the same word as ON. blása to blow (as the wind, with the mouth, bellows, a trumpet), OHG. blâsan (MHG. and mod.G. blâsen), MDu. and Du. blâzen, Goth. -blêsan (in uf-blêsan to blow up, puff up):—OTeut. *blæ̂s-an, f. root *blæ̂- (Aryan *bhlê-, L. flā-re: see blow) with suffixal -s- (perhaps from the present stem) taken into the root. The verb (*blǽs-an) was not preserved in OE., where it was represented only by the derivative n. blǽs-t, blast ‘blowing.’ The ME. vb. was prob. a. ON. blása (unless direct connexion with LG. or Du. blâsen, blâzen, can be traced). Its later history is confused with that of blazon, evidently through associating the infinitive blas-en with the pre-existing n. blason, blazon ‘shield, heraldic shield.’ The proper senses of blaze and blazon, acted and reacted upon each other in the 16th c.: see senses 3–6, and blazon v. 4–6. In later uses of sense 2, there may also be often traced an association with blaze v.1, as if to ‘blaze abroad,’ were to ‘expose to the full blaze of publicity.’]
† 1. To blow (e.g. with a musical instrument); to puff. Also with out. Obs.
c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame (1866) With his blake clarioun He gan to blasen [v.r. -yn, -in] out a soun As lowde as beloweth wynde in helle. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 78 They [beer and wulf] conne wel huylen and blasen, stele and robbe. 1535 [cf. blazing ppl. a.2] |
2. trans. To proclaim (as with a trumpet), to publish, divulge, make known.
c 1450 [see blazer2.] 1541 Barnes Wks. (1573) 198 Then were you first of all, assoyled of your allegyance, and that absolucion was blasen and blowen, preached, and taught, throughout all the world. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Pref. 11 In blasyng the Antichristian decrees. 1580 Sidney Arcadia ii. 227 What ayles this ardour To blase my onely secrets? 1588 Greene Pandosto (1843) 14 This proclamation being once blased through the country. 1613 Heywood Silv. Age iii. i. Wks. 1874 III. 139 Through all our Ebbes and Tides my Trump hath blaz'd her. 1753 Foote Eng. in Paris ii. (1763) 26 The Secret might soon be blaz'd. 1823 Scott Peveril (1865) 37 What I have to tell you is widely blazed. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 593. |
b. with abroad (forth, about). The prevalent use.
1552 Huloet, Blase abrode, publico. 1564 Brief Exam. **iij, Rather to be lamented..then to be blased abrode in wordes. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. ii. ii. 31 The Heauens themselues blaze forth the death of Princes. 1611 Bible Mark i. 45 He went out, and beganne to publish it much, and to blase abroad the matter. 1622 Wither in Farr S.P. (1848) 220 I know..his worth To be the same which I have blazed forth. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1816) II. 346 note, Fearing..that I should blaze it abroad in his lifetime. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 335 The affair was blazed about next morning. |
† c. with clause: To spread the report that. Obs.
1553–87 Foxe A. & M. (1684) II. 47/1 They falsely accuse him, which blaze, that he began with plausible matter. 1578 T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 90 Fame flew abroade, blazing that Mutezuma feared the Christians. |
† d. To decry, defame, hold up to infamy. Obs.
1580 North Plutarch (1676) 6 Minos was alwayes blazed and disgraced throughout all the Theaters of Athens. |
† 3. To describe heraldically, to blazon. Obs.
c 1440 Promp. Parv. 38 Blasyn or dyscry armys, describo. 1530 Palsgr. 456 He can blase armes as well as any herault. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 24 His Armes are thus to be blazed..He beareth a Shielde Argente, etc. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. v. (1628) 120 Our mixed manner of blasing armes in broken French and English put together. a 1628 F. Greville Sidney (1652) 44 What Herald [can] blaze their Arms without a blemish? |
† b. absol. Obs.
1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 163 Able to blaze by all those waies..whereby Armes were euer blazoned. |
† c. (fig.). to blaze one's arms, was used in sense 2 = to publish, celebrate, describe. Obs.
1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (1884) 17 A veri frend..hath dun mi arrand and blasd mi arms abrode. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 735/2 Let their armes bee blased, that euery man may detest them. |
4. With mixture of senses 2 and 3. † a. To describe, set forth with éclat, celebrate.
[1553 Douglas æneis xiii. Prol. 165 And forthirmore, to blasin [MSS. read blason] this new day, Quhay micht discryue the birdis blisful bay?] 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewell iii. 131 Haue you..blased out the Apostle of that people, with these Charitable Titles: Hypocrite, etc.? 1574 tr. Marlorat's Apocalips 15 This title agreeth to god only, according as he blazeth himselfe by it saying: I am God almighty. a 1635 Corbet Poems (1807) 65 He..that would write And blaze thee thoroughly, may at once say all, Here lies the anchor our admiral. |
† b. To describe pictorially, depict, portray. Obs.
1579 E. K. in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Ep. Ded. §1 They use to blaze and portraict..the..lineaments. 1642 R. Carpenter Exper. vi. vii. 169 In blazing the Transfiguration of Christ, they put it off without any blazing figure, without a transfiguration of words. |
† 5. To paint or adorn with armorial bearings or heraldic devices: to blazon. Obs.
1620 Unton Inv. 18 One hanginge table blazed w{supt}{suph} armes. |
† 6. To emblazon. poet. rare. (in quot. fig.)
1813 Scott Rokeby iv. xvi, High was Redmond's youthful name Blazed in the roll of martial fame. |
▪ V. blaze, v.3
[f. blaze n.2]
trans. To mark (trees) with white by chipping off a piece of bark. Also to indicate (a spot or path) by such marks. Also transf. and fig., esp. in phr. to blaze the way (trail, etc.).
1750 T. Walker Jrnl. Exploration 30 Apr. (1888) 50, I Blazed a way from our House to the River. Ibid. 23 May 56, I Blazed several Trees in the fork. 1812 J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 24 A path tolerably distinct, which we made more so by blazing the trees. Ibid. Blazing every carrying-place. 1841 in Thornton Amer. Gloss. (1912) i. 70, I desire to new blaze landmarks which..have divided Federal and Democratic parties. 1850 Fraser's Mag. XLI. 22 The settlers..blazed roads through the woods, by chipping the bark off the trees. 1850 Southern Quarterly Rev. XVIII. 418 Champollion..having done little more than ‘blaze out’ the road to be travelled by others. 1859 Holland Gold F. iii. 42 Plunge into the eternal forest that sleeps in front, and blaze the trees. 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. xiii. 366 We ‘blazed’ very many of the largest with our hatchets. 1902 L. Mead World-Coinage vi, Professor Bréal has blazed the way for future explorers in the wilderness of philology. 1904 Daily Chron. 29 Nov. 4/4 So intricate a maze that an old warder of long standing used to ‘blaze’ his way through the corridors with the help of a piece of chalk. 1937 Discovery Sept. p. lxxiii (Advt.), Dufaycolor blazes a new trail! |