BLA'MEFUL. adj. [from blame and full.] - Criminal; guilty; meriting blame.

Is not the causer of these timeless deaths As blameful as the executioner?

Shakspeare. Bluntwitted lord, ignoble in demeanour, If ever lady wrong'd her lord so much, Thy mother took into her blameful bed Some stern untutor'd churl. Shakspeare. BLA'MELESLY. adv. [from blameless.] Innocently; without crime.

It is the wilful opposing explicit articles, and not the not believing them when not revealed, or not with that conviction, against which he cannot blamelesly, without pertinacy, hold out, that will bring danger of ruin on any. Hammond. BLAMELESNESS n. s. [from blameless.] Innocence; exemption from censure. Having resolved with him in Homer, that all is chargeable on Jupiter and fate, they infer, with him, the blamelesness of the inferiour agent.

Hammond.

BLA'MELESS. adj. [from blame.] 1. Guiltless; innocent; exempt from censure or blame.

She found out the righteous, and preserved him blameless unto God. Wisdom.

The flames ascend on either altar clear, While thus the blameless maid address'd her

2. Sometimes it is used with of.

We will be blameless of this thine oath. Joshua. BLA'MER. n. s. [from blame.] One that blames or finds fault; a censurer.

In me you've hallowed a pagan muse, And denizon'd a stranger, who, mistaught By blamers of the times they marr'd, hath sought Virtues in corners. Donne. BLAMEWORTHY. adj. [from blame and worthy.] Culpable; blamable; worthy of blame or censure.

Although the same should be blameworthy, yet this age hath forborn to incur the danger of any such blame. Hooker.

TO BLANCH. v. a. [blanchir, Fr.] 1. To whiten ; to change from some other colour to white.

You can behold such sights,

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, When mine is blanch'd with fear. Shakspeare. A way of whiting wax cheaply may be of use; and we have set down the practice of tradesmen who blanch it.

Boyle. And sin's black dye seems blanch'd by age to virtue. Dryden. 2. To strip or peel such things as have husks.

Wiseman.

Their suppers may be bisket, raisins of the sun, and a few blanched almonds. 3. To slur; to balk; to pass over; to shift away. Not in use.

The judges thought it dangerous to admit ifs and ands, to qualify treason; whereby every one might express his malice, and blanch his danger. Bacon.

You are not transported in an action that warms the blood, and is appearing holy, to blanch, or take for admitted, the point of lawfulness. Bacon. TO BLANCH. v. n. To evade; to shift; to speak soft.

Optimi consiliarii mortui; books will speak plain when counsellors blanch.

Bacon.

Must'ring all her wiles,

With blandish'd parleys, feminine assaults, Tongue-batteries, she surceas'd not day nor night To storm me over-watch'd, and weary'd out Milton. BLA'NDISHMENT. n. s. [from blandish; blanditie, Lat.]

1. Act of fondness; expression of tenderness by gesture.

The little babe up in his arms he hent, Who, with sweet pleasure and bold blandishment, 'Gan smile. Spenser.

Each bird and beast, behold Approaching two and two; these cow'ring low' With blandishment.

2. Soft words; kind speeches.

Milton.

He was both well and fair spoken, and would use strange sweetness and blandishment of words, where he desired to effect or persuade any thing that he took to heart. Bacon.

3. Kind treatment; caress.

Him Dido now with blandishment detains; But I suspect the town where Juno reigns. Dryd. In order to bring those infidels within the wide circle of whiggish community, neither blandishments nor promises are omitted. Swift. BLANK. adj. [blanc, Fr. derived by Menage from albianus, thus: albianus, albianicus, bianicus, biancus, bianco, blanicus, blancus, blanc; by others from blanc, which, in Danish, signifies shining; in conformity to which, the Ger mans have blancker, to shine; the Saxons, blæcan; and the English, bleach, to whiten.]

1. White.

To the blank moon

Her office they prescrib'd; to th' other five Their planetary motions. Milton.

2. Without writing; unwritten; empty of all marks.

Our substitutes at home shall have blank char

The fatal trespass done by Eve, amaz'd, Astonied stood, and blank, while horrour chill Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd. Milton.

But now no face divine contentment wears; 'Tis all blank sadness, or continual fears. Pope.

Our blank verse, where there is no rhyme to support the expression, is extremely difficult to such as are not masters in the tongue. Addison. BLANK. n. s. [from the adjective.] 1. A void space on paper.

you.

I cannot write a paper full as I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from Swift. 2. A lot, by which nothing is gained; which has no prize marked upon it. If you have heard your general talk of Rome, And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks My name hath touch'd your ears. Shakspeare. In fortune's lottery lies

A heap of blanks, like this, for one small prize.
Dryden.
The world the coward will despise,
When life's a blank, who pulls not for a prize.
Dryden.

3. A paper from which the writing is effaced.

She has left him

The blank of what he was;

I tell thee, eunuch, she has quite unmann'd him. Dryden. 4. A paper unwritten; any thing without marks or characters.

For him, I think not on him; for his thoughts, Would they were blanks, rather than fill'd with Shakspeare.

me.

Omission to do what is necessary, Seals a commission to a blank of danger. Shaks. For the book of knowledge fair, Presented with an universal blank Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd. Milton.

Life may be one great blank, which, though not blotted with sin, is yet without any characters of grace or virtue. Rogers. 5. The point to which an arrow is directed; so called, because, to be more visible, it was marked with white. Now disused.

I have spoken for you all my best; And stood within the blank of his displeasure, For my free speech.

Shakspeare.

Shakspeare.

7. Object to which any thing is directed.
See better, Lear, and let me still remain
The true blank of thine eye.
To BLANK. v. a. [from blank; blanchir,
French.]

1. To damp; to confuse; to dispirit.
Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it destrov.
Shakspeare.
Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted trophies won on me,
And with confusion blank his worshippers. Milt.
If the atheist, when he dies, should find that

+

his soul remains, how will this man be amazed and blanked! Tillotson.

2. To efface; to annul.

All former purposes were blanked, the governour at a bay, and all that charge lost and cancelled. Spenser.

BLA'N KET. n. s. [blanchette, Fr.] 1. A woollen cover, soft, and loosely woven, spread commonly upon a bed, over the linen sheet, for the procurement of warmth.

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, Shakspeare.

To cry hold! hold!

The abilities of man must fall short on one side or other, like too scanty a blanket when you are a-bed if you pull it upon your shoulders, you leave your feet bare; if you thrust it down upon your feet, your shoulders are uncovered. Temple. Himself among the storied chiefs he spies, As from the blanket high in air he flies. Pope. 2. A kind of pear, sometimes written blanquet.

To BLANKET. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To cover with a blanket.

My face I'll grime with filth; Blanket my loins; tie all my hair in knots. Shakspeare. 2. To toss in a blanket, by way of penalty or contempt.

Ah, ho! he cry'd, what street, what lane, but knows

Our purgings, pumpings, blanketings, and blows? Pepe. BLA'NKLY.adv. [from blank.] In a blank manner; with whiteness; with paleness; with confusion.

To BLARE. v. n. [blaren, Dutch.] To bellow; to roar. Skinner. To BLASPHE'ME. v. a. [blasphemo, low Latin.]

1. To speak in terms of impious irreverence of God.

2. To speak evil of.

The truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accurs'd,
And does blaspheme his breed.

Shakspeare. Those who from our labours heap their board, Blaspheme their feeder, and forget their lord.

Pope. To BLASPHE'ME. v. n. To speak blasphemy.

Liver of blaspheming Jew. Shakspeare. I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. Acts. BLASPHEMER. n. s. [from blaspheme.] A wretch that speaks of God in impious and irreverent terms.

Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecu tor, and injurious. 1 Timothy. Even that blasphemer himself would inwardly reverence his reprover, as he in his heart really despises him for his cowardly base silence. South. Deny the curst blasphemer's tongue to rage, And turn God's fury from an impious age.

Tickel.

Should each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Because the insult 's not to man, but God? Pepe. BLA'SPHEMOUS. adj. [from blaspheme. It is usually spoken with the accent on the first syllable, but used by Milton with it on the second.] Impiously irreverent with regard to God.

Oman, take heed how thou the gods dost move, To cause full wrath, which thou canst not resist; Blasphemous words the speaker vain do prove.

Sidney. And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound To worship thee accurst; now more accurst For this attempt, bolder than that on Eve, And more blasphemous ?

Milton. A man can hardly pass the streets, without having his ears grated with horrid and blasphemous oaths and curses. Tillotson.

That any thing that wears the name of a christian, or but of man, should venture to own such a villainous, impudent, and blasphemous assertion in the face of the world, as this! South. BLA'SPHEMOUSLY.adv.[from blaspheme.] Impiously; with wicked irreverence.

Where is the right use of his reason, while he would blasphemously set up to controul the commands of the Almighty? Swift. BLA'S PHEMY. n. s. [from blaspheme.] Blasphemy, strictly and properly, is an offering of some indignity, or injury, unto God himself, either by words or writing. Ayliffe. But that my heart's on future mischief set, I would speak blasphemy, ere bid you fly; But fly you must. Shakspeare Intrinsick goodness consists in accordance, and sin in contrariety, to the secret will of God; or else God could not be defined good, so far as his thoughts and secrets, but only superficially good, as far as he is pleased to reveal himself, which is Hammond. perfect blasphemy to imagine, BLAST. n. s. [from blært, Sax. blasen, Germ. to blow.]

1. A gust or puff of wind.

They that stand high have many blasts to shake
them;

And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
Shakspeare.

Welcome, then,

Oh! Portius, is there not some chosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the store of heaven, Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin? Addison.

2. To make to wither.

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way.

Shakspeare. And behold seven thin ears, and blasted with Genesis. the east wind, sprung up after them. She, that like lightning shin'd while her face lasted,

The oak now resembles, which lightning had blasted. Waller. Tohis greenyears your censures you would suit, Not blast that blossom, but expect the fruit. Dryd. Agony unmix'd, incessant gall Corroding every thought, and plasting all Love's paradise.

Thomson.

3. To injure; to invalidate; to make infamous.

He shews himself weak, if he will take my word when he thinks I deserve no credit; or malicious, if he knows I deserve credit, and yet goes about to blast it. Stilling fleet. 4. To cut off; to hinder from coming to maturity.

This commerce Jehoshaphat king of Judea endeavoured to renew; but his enterprize was blasted by the destruction of vessels in the harbour. Arbuthnot.

5. To confound; to strike with terrour. Trumpeters,

With brazen din blast you the city's ears; Make mingle with your rattling tabourines. Shakspeare. BLA'STMENT. n. s. [from blast.] Blast; sudden stroke of infection. Not in use. In the morn, and liquid dew of youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent. Shakspeare. BLATANT. adj. [blattant. Fr.] Bellowing

as a calf.

You learn this language from the blatant beast. Dryden. To BLATTER. v. n. [from blatero, Lat.] To roar; to make a senseless noise. Not used.

She rode at peace, through his only pains and excellent endurance, however envy list to blatter against him. Spenser. BLATTERATION. n. s. [blateratio, Lat.] Noise; senseless roar.

BLAY. n. s. [alburnus.] A small white river fish; cailed also a bleak. BLAZE. n. s. [blare, a torch, Saxon.] 1. A flame; the light of the flame: blaze implies more the light than the heat.

The main blaze of it is past; but a small Shakspeare. thing would make it flame again. Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light, A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. Dryden. What groans of men shall fill the martial field! How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield! What fun'ral pomp shall floating Tiber see! Dryd 2. Publication; wide diffusion of report... For what is glory but the blaze of fame, The people's praise, if always praise unmixt? Milton,

3. Blaze is a white mark upon a horse, descending from the forehead almost to the nose. Farrier's Dict. To BLAZE. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To flame; to show the light of a flame. Thus you may long live an happy instrument

1. To publish; to make known; to spread far and wide.

The noise of this fight, and issue thereof, being blazed by the country people to some noblemen thereabouts, they came thither. Sidney. My words, in hopes to blaze a stedfast mind, This marble chose, as of like temper known. Sidney. Thou shalt live, till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of thy prince, and call thee back. Shakspeare. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heav'ns themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Shakspeare.

But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter.

Mark.

Pope.

2. To blazon; to give an account of ensigns armorial in proper terms. Not used.

This, in ancient times, was called a fierce; and you should then have blazed it thus: he bears a fierce, sable, between two fierces, or. Peacham.

BLAʼZER. n. s. [from blaze.] One that spreads reports.

Utterers of secrets he from thence debarr'd, Babblers of folly, and blazers of crime; His larum-bell might loud and wide be heard, When cause requir'd, but never out of time; Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime. Spencer.

To BLA'ZON. v. a. [blasonner, Fr.] 1. To explain, in proper terms, the figures on ensigns armorial.

King Edward gave to them the coat of arms, which I am not herald enough to blazon into English. Addison.

2. To deck; to embellish; to adorn.

She blazons in dread smiles her hideous form; So lightning gilds the unrelenting storm. Garth. 3. To display; to set to show.

O thou goddess,

Thou divine nature! how thyself thou blazon'st
In these two princely boys! they are as gentle
As zephyrs blowing below the violet,
Not wagging his sweet head.

To celebrate; to set out.

Shakspeare.

One that excels the quirk of blazoning pens, And, in th' essential vesture of creation, Does bear all excellency.

Shakspeare.

5. To blaze about; to make publick.

What's this but libelling against the senate, And blazoning our injustice every where? Sbak. BLA'ZON. n. s. [from the verb.]

1. The art of drawing or explaining coats -of arms.

2. Show; divulgation; publication. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.

Shakspeare.

3. Celebration; proclamation of some quality.

I am a gentleman.-I'll be sworn thou art; Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, action, and spirit,

Do give thee five-fold blazon. Shakspeare. Men con over their pedigrees, and obtrude the blazon of their exploits upon the company. Collier, BLAʼZONRY. n. s. [from blazen.] The art of blazoning.

Give certain rules as to the principles of blazonry. Peacham on Drawing. To BLEACH. v. a. [bleechen, Germ.] To whiten; commonly to whiten by exposure to the open air.

When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws;
And maidens bleach their summer smocks. Sbak.
Should I not seek

The clemency of some more temp'rate clime,
To purge my gloom; and, by the sun refin'd,
Bask in his beams, and bleach me in the wind?

Dryden. To BLEACH. v. n. To grow white; to grow white in the open air.

The white sheet bleaching in the open field.
Shakspeare.
For there are various penances enjoin'd;
And some are hung to bleach upon the wind,
Some plung'd in waters.
Dryden.

The deadly winter seizes; shuts up sense;
Lays him along the snows, a stiffen'd corse,
Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast.
Thomson.

BLEAK. adj. [blac, blæc, Saxon.] 1. Pale.

2. Cold; chill; cheerless.

Intreat the north

To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips, And comfort me with cold. Shakspeare.

The goddess that in rural shrine Dwell'st here with Pan, or Sylvan, by blest song Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood.

Milter.

Her desolation presents us with nothing but bleak and barren prospects.

Addison.

Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantick shore, Or.bid the furious Gaul be rude no more? Pope. BLEAK. n. s. [alburnus, from his white or bleak colour. A small river fish.

The bleak, or freshwater sprat, is ever in mo→ tion, and therefore called by some the river swallow. His back is of a pleasant, sad sea water green; his belly white and shining like the mountain snow. Bleaks are excellent meat, and in best season in August. BLE'AKNESS. n. s. [from bleak.] Coldness; chilness.

Walton.

The inhabitants of Nova Zembla go naked, without complaining of the bleakness of the air; as the armies of the northern nations keep the field all winter. Addison. BLEAK Y. adj. [from bleak.] Bleak; cold chill.

On shrubs they browze, and, on the bleaky top Of rugged hills, the thorny bramble crop. Dryd. BLEAR. adj. [blaer, a blister, Dutch.]] 1. Dim with rheum or water; sore with rheum.

It is a tradition that blear eyes affect sound eyes. Bacon. It is no more in the power of calumny to blast the dignity of an honest man, than of the blear eyed owl to cast scandal on the sun. L'Estrange. His blear eyes ran in gutters to his chin; His beard was stubble, and his cheeks were thin. Dryden. When thou shalt see the blear eyed fathers teach Their sons this harsh and mouldy sort of speech. Dryden. 2. Dim; obscure in general, or that which makes dimness.

Thus I hurl

When I was young, I, like a lazy fool, Would blear my eyes with oil to stay from school; Averse to pains. Dryden.

2. To dim the eyes.

This may stand for a pretty superficial argument, to blear our eyes, and lull us asleep in security. Raleigh. BLE AREDNESS. n. s. [from bleared.] The state of being bleared, or dimmed with rheum.

The defluxion falling upon the edges of the eyelids, makes a blearedness. Wiseman. To BLEAT. v. n. [blætan, Sax.] To cry as a sheep.

We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk i' th' sun,

And bleat the one at th' other. Shakspeare. You may as well use question with the wolf, Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb. Merchant of Venice.

While on sweet grass her bleating charge does lie, Our happy lover feeds upon her eye. Roscommon, What buil dares bellow, or what sheep dares bleat, Dryden. BLEAT. n. s. [from the verb.] The cry of a sheep or lamb.

Within the lion's den?

Setin my ship, mine ear reach'd,where we rode, The bellowing of oxen, and the bleat Of fleecy sheep.

Chapman. BLEB. n. s. [blaen, to swell, Germ.] A blister.

Skinner.

BLED. The preterit and participle of To bleed.

To BLEED. v. n. pret. I bled; I have bled. [bleban, Saxon.]

I. To lose blood; to run with blood.
I bleed inwardly for my lord.

Bleed, bleed, poor country!

Shakspeare.

Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure; For goodness dare not check thee! Shakspeare. Many, upon the seeing of others bleed, or strangled, or tortured, themselves are ready to faint, as if they bled, Bacon.

2. To die a violent death.

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day; Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?

Pope.

3. To lose blood medicinally; as, he bled for a fever..

4. To drop, as blood. It is applied to any thing that drops from some body on in cision, as blood from an animal.

For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow, The coral redden, and the ruby glow. Pope. To BLEED. v. a. To let blood; to take blood from.

That, from a patriot of distinguish'd note, Have bled and purg'd me to a simple vote. Pope. BLEIT. adj. Bashful. It is used in BLATE. Scotland, and the bordering

counties.

To BLE'MISH. v. a. [from blame, Junius; from bleme, white, Fr. Skinner.] 1. To mark with any deformity.

Likelier that my outward face might have been disguised, than that the face of so excellent a mind could have been thus blemished. Sidney. 2. To defame; to tarnish, with respect to reputation.

Not that my verse would blemish all the fair; But yet, if some be bad, 't is wisdom to beware. Dryden.

Those, who, by concerted defamations, endeavour to blemish his character, incur the complicated guilt of slander and perjury. Addison, BLE MISH. n. s. [from the verb.]

1. A mark of deformity; a scar; a dimi. nution of beauty.

As he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.

Leviticus.

Open it so from the eye-lid, that not that; for, in so doing, you will leave a remediless blemish.

Wiseman.

2. Reproach; disgrace; imputation.

That you have been earnest, should be no Hooker. blemish or discredit at all unto you.

And if we shali neglect to propagate these blessed dispositions, what others can undertake it, without some blemish to us, some reflection on our negligence? Spratt.

None more industriously publish the blemishes of an extraordinary reputation, than such as lie open to the same censures; raising applause to themselves, for resembling a person of an exalted reputation, though in the blameable parts of his character. Addison.

3. A soil; turpitude; taint; deformity. First shall virtue be vice, and beauty be