▪ I. blade, n.
(bleɪd)
Forms: 1 blæd, 4–5 blad, 5 bladde, blaad(e, blayd, 6 blaid, 3– blade.
[Com. Teut.: OE. blæd, neut., (pl. blado, bladu) = OFris. bled, OS. blad (MDu. blat, Du. blad, LG. blad), OHG., MHG. blat (mod.G. blatt), ON. blað (Sw., Da. blad):—OTeut. *blado-(m; perh. a ppl. formation (with suffix -ðo- do:—Aryan -tó-) from OTeut. verbal stem *blō̆-, see blow v.2, cognate with L. flos. The long vowel in ME. and modern Eng. appears to be derived from the oblique cases and plural, blăd-es, blăd-o, made in ME. into blā-des, blā-de. The 15th c. northern spellings blayd, blaid, and Chaucer's dissyllabic blade, bladde, require explanation. The sense-history is notable: in German blatt is the general word for ‘leaf,’ laub being the foliage collectively of trees; in Norse ‘herbs or plants have blað, trees have lauf’; but in OE. léaf is the general word for ‘leaf’ and ‘foliage’; blæd occurs only once, (as it happens, poetically, in the brád blado of the plant of wickedness), and this sense is quite absent in ME., while that of the ‘blade’ of an oar (also in OE.), of a sword or knife, is frequent. It would almost seem then that the modern ‘blade’ of grass or corn is a later re-transfer from ‘sword-blade’; while in regard to corn, there is some reason to suspect influence of med.L. bladum, OF. bled corn, wheat; at least these were evidently supposed to be the same word. The mod.Sc. ‘cabbage-blade’ also is prob. not directly connected with the OE.; but Norse influence may possibly have contributed to a retention of the vegetable sense in the north.]
I. Of plants.
1. The leaf of a herb or plant; originally perhaps (as in Icelandic) applied to those of all herbs, while leaf was used of the foliage of trees. Now applied dial. (e.g. in south of Scotland) to a broad flat leaf, as the outer leaves of cabbage or lettuce, the leaves of rhubarb, tobacco, etc.; in literary Eng. only poetically and vaguely for ‘leaf.’
| a 1000 Cædmon's Gen. (Gr.) 994 Brád blado. 1785 Burns Dr. Hornbook xix, In a kail-blade..send it. 1864 Swinburne Atalanta 1357 The low lying melilote And all of goodliest blade and bloom that springs. 1877 Bryant Lit. People of Snow 350 In shape like blades and blossoms of the field. |
2. spec. a. The flat lanceolate leaves of grass and cereals;
esp. such as spring from the root and appear first above ground; also the whole of such plants before the spike or ear appears. (
Cf. 4: botanically the leaves of grass are all ‘blade.’)
| c 1450 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 583 Festuca, the blaad of corn or a strawe. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §84 Red wheate..is the greatteste corne, and the brodeste blades, and the greattest strawe. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. 27 The eare..fyrst appeareth enclosed in the blade. 1597 Gerard Herbal i. xl, From whence shoot foorth grassie blades or leaues. 1611 Bible Mark iv. 28 First the blade, then the eare, after that the full corne in the eare. 1670 Janua Ling. xii. §92 Corn raiseth it self up into a blade. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. vii, Who ever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow..where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind..than the whole race of politicians. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. ii. (1866) 37 Disappointed at the delay which ensues before the blade breaks the soil. |
b. in the blade: while there is as yet only blade or leaf, not yet in the ear. Also
fig.| 1584 R. Scot Disc. Witchcr. i. iv, Transferre corne in the blade from one place to another. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet D iij b, Vnripened youthes, whose wisedomes are yet in the blade. 1601 Shakes. All's Well v. iii. 6 Naturall rebellion done i'th blade of youth. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. xiv. 472 His corn was in the blade. 1847 Tennyson Princess i. 31, I had been, While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd. |
† c. The grassy leaves of other endogens.
Obs.| 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. xxxvi. 195 The small floure Deluce, hath narrow long blades, almost like the leaues of the right Gladyn. Ibid. v. lxxiii. 640 Onyon hath leaues or blades almost like garlike. 1585 Lloyd Treas. Health Qj, Take borage and leke blades. 1611 J. Guillim Heraldrie iii. x. 115 The field is sable, three Lilies slipped, their..blades argent. |
† d. Corn, growing corn, corn-crop.
Obs. [Taken as a translation of
med.L.
bladum, F.
bled, blé.]
| 1553 Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 26 Nere vnto the citie of Caigui groweth plentie of blade and ryce. 1555 ― Decades W. Ind. ii. ix. (Arb.) 130 Lykewyse blades, settes, slippes, grasses, suger canes. |
† 3. a. ? A pointed shoot or ‘spire’ of any plant.
Obs.| c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 445 Take the blades of fenell. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 37 Blade of an herbe [1499 blad or blade], tirsus. 1552 Huloet, Blade of a chiboll or oynion, talia. 1570 Levins Manip. 8 Blade of an herb, talia. 1634 T. Horne Janua Ling. Index post., The blade of an hearb, talea. |
† b. Applied by Grew to the ‘style’ of composite flowers.
Obs.| 1674 Grew Anat. Plants v. §20 The Sheath, after some time, dividing at the top, from within its Concave the Third and innermost part of the Suit, sc. the Blade, advances and displays itself. |
4. Bot. The broad, thin, expanded part of a leaf, as opposed to the petiole or foot-stalk; the lamina or limb; also the corresponding part of a petal.
| 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 260 The Blade..is subject to many diversities of figure and division. 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 52 Petals with an appendage at the base of the blade. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. i. 5 Foliage-leaves..consist of petiole and blade, or of blade only; the blade being spread out horizontally. |
II. Of other things.
5. a. The broad, flattened, leaf-like part (as distinguished from the shank or handle) of any instrument or utensil, as a paddle, oar, battledore, bat, spade, forceps; from that of a paddle or oar (a very ancient sense) extended to the parts of a whale's tail, a paddle wheel, or screw propeller, which act similarly upon the water.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 167 Palmula, roðres blæd. c 1050 Ags. Gloss. ibid. 182 Palmula, arblæd. 1674 Petty Disc. bef. R. Soc. 59 Suppose, that the Oars remain the same length, but that the Blade be doubled. 1770 Robertson in Phil. Trans. LX. 321 The tail, as in all the whale tribe, was placed horizontal a little forked; the blades were of a wedge shape, and fourteen feet from tip to tip. 1835 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 224/2 Seized between the blades of a forceps. 1854 G. B. Richardson Univ. Code v. 7602 How many blades have you to screw propeller? 1880 V. L. Cameron Fut. Highw. II. xiii. 274 A spade with a blade the size of the palm of one's hand. 1886 Holmes Mortal Antip. ii, Their blades flashed through the water. |
b. The front flat part of the tongue.
| 1877 Sweet Handbk. Phonetics 2 Of the tongue we distinguish..the ‘blade’ which includes the upper surface of the tongue immediately behind the point. ‘Lower blade’ implies..the lower..surface. |
c. A vane upon the circumference of a revolving cylinder or disc of a turbine.
| 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 517/1 Attempts have been made..to devise steam-engines of the turbine class, where rotation of a wheel is produced..by impact of a jet [of steam] upon revolving blades. 1900 [see turbine 1 b]. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 795/2 [In an impulse turbine]..the water rushes with high velocity through a series of jets or nozzles and impinges on suitably shaped blades. |
d. Aeronaut. A part of the propeller of an aeroplane or rotary-wing aircraft which acts upon the air. Also
attrib.| 1907 W. M. Varley tr. Moedebeck's Aeronautics xxv. 421 A screw-propeller is built up usually of two or more blades. 1916 H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks iv. 115 The propeller screws through the air, and its blades..secure a reaction. 1920 Flight XII. 1309/1 Sketch of a sectioned blade root. 1958 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 960/2 Blade loading, the thrust of a helicopter rotor divided by the total area of the blades. |
e. = switch-blade (see
switch n. 9).
| 1920 Whittaker's Electr. Engin. Pocket-Bk. (ed. 4) 323 The blades of isolating switches should be locked in position. |
6. a. The thin cutting part of an edged tool or weapon, as distinguished from the handle.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. i. 350 Caliborne, þat gode brond..Ten fote longe was þen þe blade. c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 10 And of a swerd ful trenchaunt was the blade. c 1450 Nominale in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 735 Sindula, a blayd [among parts of a knife]. 1530 Palsgr. 198/2 Blade of a knyfe, alumelle. 1611 Bible Judges iii. 22 The haft also went in after the blade. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 114 Pricker. Is vulgarly called an Awl: Yet..it hath most commonly a square blade, which enters the Wood better than a round blade will. 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5852/12 Lost..a..Sword..the Blade a little rusty. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 280 A penknife blade is formed at two heats. 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 913 The blade of the sutorial tooth. 1880 G. C. M. Birdwood Ind. Art II. 3 The blades of Damascus..were in fact of Indian iron. |
b. Archæol. A long, narrow flint-flake, used
esp. as a tool in prehistoric times (see
quot. 1959). Freq.
attrib., as
blade-axe,
blade-culture,
blade-tool.
| 1921 M. C. Burkitt Prehistory iv. 65 While long flakes or blades are being struck off a core, vibrations transverse to the blow itself are set up in the flake or blade. 1926 R. A. Smith Flints 29 (caption) A blade-scraper. Ibid. 30 Graving-tools..are generally made from flakes, preferably blades (flakes with the side-edges parallel and longer than the ends). 1935 Huxley & Haddon We Europeans ii. 53 Various types of Homo sapiens from Africa and Asia whose implements are typically..blade tools, a form of flake technique. 1937 Discovery Sept. 287/2 Blade-axes, chisels, spear-heads. 1943 J. & C. Hawkes Prehist. Britain i. 21 The late Palæolithic hunters had a much more delicate and specialized equipment than their predecessors, that is distinguished from the core and flake forms by the general name of ‘blade’ culture. 1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. S. Afr. v. 111 The lump is called a core..and the pieces removed are known as flakes or, if they are long and narrow, they are called blades. |
7. a. The blade being the essential part of such weapons etc. is often put for the whole,
esp. in poetry and literary language.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1105 Nauþer to cout ne to kerue, with knyf ne wyth egge, For-þy brek he þe bred blades wythouten. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 618 A long surcote of pers vp on he hade [v.r. haade, hadde] And by his syde he baar a rusty blade [so 4 MSS.; v.r. blaade, bladde]. c 1460 Towneley Myst. 40 The shynyng of youre bright blayde It gars me quake for ferd to dee. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 23 Theyre blades they brandisht. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 190 You breake iests as braggards do their blades. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 13 He drew his sword..a short well-tempered Spanish blade. 1832 Macaulay Armada 28 Ho! gunners, fire a loud salute: ho! gallants, draw your blades. |
b. fig. (
Cf. weapon.)
| 1692 A. Pitcairne Babell 287 He did his trustie tongue unsheath..It was a blade that he could trust. 1735 Oldys Life Raleigh Wks. 1829 I. 384 Cecyll..play'd a smooth edge upon Ralegh throughout the trial; his blade seemed ever anointed with the balsam of compliment or apology. |
c. Usu.
pl. Hand shears for shearing sheep. Also
attrib. Austral. and
N.Z.| 1905 A. B. Paterson Old Bush Songs 26 All among the wool, boys, Keep your wide blades full, boys. 1917 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 20 Sept. 134 The majority of the larger sheep-owners..have come to recognize the advantages of ‘machines’ over ‘blades’. 1923 W. Perry et al. Sheep Farming in N.Z. vi. 83 In some parts there is a reaction in favour of blade shearing. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 64 Shearers have also been called..bladesmen, although the last term is going out of fashion because most shearing is now done with machines. |
8. a. A broad flattened bone or part of a bone, as the
cheek blades,
jaw-blades;
esp. the flat, triangular-shaped bone of the shoulder called the
shoulder-blade or
blade-bone, the scapula; also the corresponding bone of the fore leg of animals.
b. One of the scythe-shaped plates in which whalebone occurs.
| a 1300 Havelok 2644 Bi the shudre-blade The sharpe swerd let wade. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxvi. (1495) 135 Sholder blades ben..hight blades for they ben shape as a brode swerde. 1535 Coverdale Tob. vi. 3 Take him by the cheke blade, and drawe him to the. 1600 Chapman Iliad v. 577 Atrides' lance did gore Pylemens shoulder in the blade. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 20 Nor put up Blow, but that which laid Right worshipful on Shoulder-blade. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 22 A Whale, the longest blade of whose mouth measures nine or ten feet. 1878 J. Marshall Anat. Artists 17 The two scapulæ, shoulder bones, or blade-bones. |
9. Used of other things; as a
blade of mace.
| 1653 Walton Angler 158 Mixt, with a blade or two of Mace. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 231 Put the blades of the Quadrants into two Slits. a 1718 Penn Tracts Wks. 1726 I. 498 That he ever took..one Clove, Nutmeg, Blade of Mace, or Skain of Silk..I utterly deny. 1825 S. & S. Adams Compl. Servant 97 Put a blade of mace, and a quartered nutmeg into a quart of cream. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. i. 17 Take a blade of bone, and scrape off all the ice from your furs. |
10. Senses of doubtful origin:
a. Arch.| 1851 Dict. Archit., Blade, a word sometimes applied, as well as Back, to the principal rafter of a roof. 1879 Shropshire Gloss. (E.D.S.), Blade, that timber in a roof which goes at an angle from the top of the ‘king-post’ to the beam of the ‘principal.’ |
† b. A staff, pole, shaft. Also found as
blede.
| 1559 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1853) 170 Two long wayne blayds..9 ashilltresse and a plowe. 1627 Jackson Creed vii. xviii. §12 To receive the prize, or (as the original word imports) to snatch it from the blede or staff whereto they run. |
† c. blades: a spindle for winding yarn upon.
| c 1475 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 794 Hoc girgillum, a bladys. Hic virgillus, a yerwyndylleblad. 1530 Palsgr. 184 Vnes tournettes, a payre of wyndynge blades. Ibid. 646, I ontwyne yarne of the spyndel or blades. 1552 Huloet, Blades or yarne wyndles, an instrumente of huswyfery, girgillus, volutorium. |
III. Applied to a man. [Prob. connected with senses 6, 7, though whether as a
fig. use of these, or as a wielder of a blade, does not appear from the 83 earliest quotations examined.]
11. a. A gallant, a free-and-easy fellow, a good fellow; ‘fellow’, generally familiarly laudatory, sometimes good-naturedly contemptuous. (The original sense is difficult to seize: Bailey 1730 says, ‘a bravo, an Hector; also a spruce fellow, a beau’; Johnson ‘a brisk man, either fierce or gay, called so in
contempt.’) (Now colloquial or slangy: in literature, chiefly a reminiscence of the eighteenth century.)
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iv. 31 By Iesu a very good blade, a very tall man. 1640 Nabbes Bride ii. i, Go carry the blades in the Lion a pottle of Sack from me. 1658 Ussher Ann. 159 Sending for such..as he knew to be blades, and had good hearts and head-peeces of their owne. 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 354 As the present fashion among the blades is. 1705 Hickeringill Priest-Cr. ii. v. 57 These are the Blades must do all, though they do all ill. 1760 Lond. Mag. XXIX. 224 Gentlemen of the town, as a sort of Blades may be well y'clep'd. 1818 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 354 A blade whom I took for a decent tailor. |
b. usually taking force and colour from an attribute:
e.g. brave,
stout,
gallant,
fighting,
swaggering,
swashing,
bullying,
blustering,
dashing,
rattling,
roaring,
roistering,
jolly,
lively,
wild,
comical,
fantastical,
cynical,
crafty,
knowing,
saucy,
worthy,
old,
young, etc.
| c 1600 Rob. Hood (Ritson) ii. vi. 73 This is a mad blade, the butchers then said. 1629 Ford Lover's Melanch. i. ii. (1839) 4 He's an honest blade, though he be blunt. 1646 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 243 A true old blade, and had been a very curious virtuoso, etc. 1649 C. Walker Hist. Indep. ii. 184 Those free spirited Blades whom Oliver raised into a Mutiny. 1682 N. O. tr. Boileau's Lutrin i. Argt. 2 Three swashing Blades. 1714 T. Ellwood Autobiog. (1765) 143 These two Baptists were topping Blades. 1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. 185 [In] All-Souls college one afternoon, several jovial blades..were sitting there over a pipe and a bottle. 1779 Johnson Lett. II. ccxviii. 75 When we meet we will be jolly blades. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. i, Two dashing young blades. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall ix. 75 He was one of the most roaring blades of the neighbourhood. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge v, He's a knowing blade. 1857 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. II. 443 The clever old crafty blade spoke out with..a thorough knowledge. |
c. sometimes with local or official attribute.
| c 1626 Dick of Devon ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 26 My Devonshire blade, honest Dick Pike. 1638 Suckling Goblins in Fragm. Aur. (1646) 35 [He] askes much after certaine Brittish blades, One Shakespeare and Fletcher. 1663 Hist. Cromwell in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 367 [Cromwell] packs up a juncto of army blades..who constitute a high court of justice. 1755 Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 406 Exposed to any sudden attempt from..the Buckinghamshire blades. 1882 J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. xiii. 106 Adventures of a keen Yorkshire blade. |
IV. 12. Comb. and
attrib., as
blade-forger,
blade-metal,
blade-mill,
blade-smith, etc.;
blade-like,
blade-wise adj. and
adv.; also
blade-bone, the shoulder-blade, the corresponding bone of animals and ‘joint’ of meat;
blade-consonant Phonetics, a consonant formed with the blade of the tongue; also
blade-point (see
quot. 1890);
blade-fish, one of the Ribbon-fishes (
Trichiurus lepturus);
blade-spring, a form of spring used to hold piston rings in place;
blade-work, work done with the blade of an oar.
| a 1678 Marvell Life Wks. 1776 III. 463, I shall have the sweet *blade-bone broiled. 1845 Disraeli Sybil iii. iv, A deformity occasioned by the displacement of the bladebone. |
| 1877 Sweet Handbk. Phonetics 48 A blade consonant rather advanced. 1890 Sweet Primer of Spoken Eng. 8 The blade-consonant s is formed with the ‘blade’ or flattened point of the tongue; if the tongue is retracted from this position, and the point raised, we get the blade-point consonant ʃ in ‘fish’. |
| 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 300 Hammers..used by the *blade-forgers. |
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. V. 157/1 The shaft being long and *blade-like. |
| 1645 Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 357 The men of Toledo had store of good *blade-mettle. |
| c 1400 Destr. Troy v. 1592 Bochers, *bladsmythis, baxters. 1569 Wills & Inv. N.C. I. (1835) 301 John Tedcastle of Gatisheid, blaidsmith. |
| 1863 F. Campin Mech. Engin. 130 Four arms, which serve a double purpose, connecting the boss with the top and bottom of the piston, and carrying at their extremities the *blade-springs. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 30 Mar. 6/7 Their *blade work is not pretty, the finish not being clean, and the feather frequently under water. 1959 Times 13 Mar. 18/1 They [sc. the Cambridge crew] went up quickly, in spite of some dirty bladework. |
▪ II. blade, v. (
bleɪd)
[f. prec. n. Cf. Ger. blatten in sense 1.] 1. trans. To take off the blades (senses 1, 3).
dial.| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 37 Bladyn herbys, or take away the bladys, detirso. 1818 Edin. Mag. Sept. 155 (Jam.) When she had gane out to blade some kail for the pat. 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss. (E.D.S.), To Blade mangles, to take the outside leaves off growing mangolds. |
2. To provide with a (cutting) blade.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 37 Bladyn haftys, scindulo. 1801 W. Taylor in Month. Mag. XII. 590 To blade the prow of the gondola of embassy. |
3. intr. To put forth blades or leaves.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xviii. xvii, Otherwise the corn would never spindle, but blade still, and run all to leafe. 1633 P. Fletcher Elisa ii. xxxv, Down falls her glorious leaf, and never more it bladeth. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. iv, Grass was blading out upon it. |
† 4. to blade it: to fight.
to blade it out: to fight a matter out with the sword.
Obs.| 1571 R. Edwards Damon & P. in Dodsley (1780) I. 194 Rather than I wyll lose the spoyle, I wyll blade it out. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet 15 None dare blade it with thee. |