Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Blaze

Blaze (blāz), n. [OE. blase, AS. blæse, blase; akin to OHG. blass whitish, G. blass pale, MHG. blas torch, Icel. blys torch; perh. fr. the same root as E. blast. Cf. Blast, Blush, Blink.] 1. A stream of gas or vapor emitting light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame. "To heaven the blaze uprolled." Croly.

2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat; as, to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon! Milton.

3. A bursting out, or active display of any quality; an outburst; a brilliant display. "Fierce blaze of riot." "His blaze of wrath." Shak.

For what is glory but the blaze of fame? Milton.

4. [Cf. D. bles; akin to E. blaze light.] A white spot on the forehead of a horse.

5. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark.

Three blazes in a perpendicular line on the same tree indicating a legislative road, the single blaze a settlement or neighborhood road. Carlton.

In a blaze, on fire; burning with a flame; filled with, giving, or reflecting light; excited or exasperated. — Like blazes, furiously; rapidly. [Low] "The horses did along like blazes tear." Poem in Essex dialect.

☞ In low language in the U. S., blazes is frequently used of something extreme or excessive, especially of something very bad; as, blue as blazes. Neal.

Syn. — Blaze, Flame. A blaze and a flame are both produced by burning gas. In blaze the idea of light rapidly evolved is prominent, with or without heat; as, the blaze of the sun or of a meteor. Flame includes a stronger notion of heat; as, he perished in the flames.

Blaze, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Blazed; p. pr. & vb. n. Blazing.] 1. To shine with flame; to glow with flame; as, the fire blazes.

2. To send forth or reflect glowing or brilliant light; to show a blaze.

And far and wide the icy summit blazed. Wordsworth.

3. To be resplendent. Macaulay.

To blaze away, to discharge a firearm, or to continue firing; — said esp. of a number of persons, as a line of soldiers. Also used (fig.) of speech or action. [Colloq.]

Blaze, v. t. 1. To mark (a tree) by chipping off a piece of the bark.

I found my way by the blazed trees. Hoffman.

2. To designate by blazing; to mark out, as by blazed trees; as, to blaze a line or path.

Champollion died in 1832, having done little more than blaze out the road to be traveled by others. Nott.

Blaze, v. t. [OE. blasen to blow; perh. confused with blast and blaze a flame, OE. blase. Cf. Blaze, v. i., and see Blast.] 1. To make public far and wide; to make known; to render conspicuous.

On charitable lists he blazed his name. Pollok.

To blaze those virtues which the good would hide. Pope.

2. (Her.) To blazon. [Obs.] Peacham.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.