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Shakspeare.

To BLENCH. v. a. To hinder; to obstruct. Not used.

The rebels besieged them, winning the even ground on the top, by carrying up great trusses of hay before them, to blench the defendants sight, and dead their shot. Carew.

To BLEND. v. a. pret. I blended; anciently, blent. [blendan, Saxon.]

1. To mingle together.

'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on. Shakspeare.

The mistion taught by the ancients is too slight or gross; for bodies mixed according to their hypothesis, would not appear such to the acute eyes of a lynx, who would discern the elements, if they were no otherwise mingled than but blended but not united. Boyle. He had his calmer influence, and his mien Did love and majesty together blend. Dryden. The grave, where even the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppress'd. 2. To confound.

Pope.

The moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture. Hooker.

3. To pollute; to spoil; to corrupt. This signification was anciently much in use, but is now wholly obsolete.

Which when he saw, he burnt with jealous fire; The eye of reason was with rage yblent. Fairy Q. Regard of worldly muck doth foully blend, And low abase the high heroic spirit. Fairy Queen. The whilst thy kingdom from thy head is rent, And thy throne royal with dishonour blent.

Spenser. BLENDER. n. s. [from To blend. The person that mingles.

BLENT. The obsolete participle of blend. To BLESS. v. a. preterit and participle,

blessed or blest. [blerrian, Saxon.] 1. To make happy; to prosper; to make successful.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth as the gentle rain of heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. Shakspeare.

Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessed time: for, from this instant,

There's nothing serious in mortality. Shaksp. This kingdom enjoyed the greatest calm, and the fullest measure of felicity, that any people, in any age, for so long time together, have been blessed with. Clarendon.

Happy this isle, with such a hero blest; What virtue dwells not in his loyal breast?

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3. To consecrate by a prayer.

4.

He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves.
Matthew.

To praise; to glorify for benefits received; to celebrate.

Unto us there is one only guide of all agents natural, and he both the creator and worker of all in all, alone to be blessed, adored, and honoured by all for ever. Hooker.

But bless'd be that great pow'r that hath us bless'd

With longer life than earth and heav'n can have. Davies.

5. It seems, in one place of Spenser, to signify the same as to wave; to brandish; to flourish. This signification is taken from an old rite of our Romish ancestors, who, blessing a field, directed their hands in quick succession to all parts of it.

Whom when the prince to battle new addrest, And threat'ning high his dreadful stroke did see, His sparkling blade about his head he blest, And smote off quite his right leg by the knee. Fairy Queen. BLESSED. particip. adj. [from To bless.] 1. Happy; enjoying felicity. Blessed are the barren,

Luke,

2. Holy and happy; happy in the favour of God.

All generations shall call me blessed. 3. Happy in the joys of heaven.

Luke.

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.
Revelations.

BLE'SSED Thistle. [cnicus, Lat.] A plant. BLESSEDLY. adv. [from blessed.] Happily.

This accident of Clitophon's taking, had so blessedly procured their meeting. Sidney. BLESSEDNESS. n. s. [from blessed.] 1. Happiness; felicity.

Many times have I, leaning to yonder palm, admired the blessedness of it, that it could bear love without the sense of pain. Sidney,

His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him For then, and not till then, he felt himself, And found the blessedness of being little. Shaks, 2. Sanctity.

Earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness. Sbak. 3. Heavenly felicity.

It is such an one, as, being begun in grace, passes into glory, blessedness, and immortality. South. 4. Divine favour.

BLESSER. n. s. [from bless.] He that blesses, or gives a blessing; he that makes any thing prosper.

When thou receivest praise, take it indifferently, and return it to God, the giver of the gift, or blesser of the action. Taylor. BLESSING. n. s. [from bless.]

1. Benediction; a prayer by which happiness is implored for any one.

2. A declaration by which happiness is promised in a prophetick and authoritative

manner.

The person that is called, kneeleth down before the chair, and the father layeth his hand upon his head, or her head, and giveth the blessing. Bacon, 3. Any of the means of happiness ; a gift ; an advantage; a benefit.

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Honour thy father and mother, both in word and deed, that a blessing may come upon thee from them. Ecclus.

He shall receive the blessing from the Lord.
Psalms.

5. The Hebrews, under this name, often understood the presents which friends make to one another; in all probability, because they are generally at

ing, in defect of eyes, receives advertisement of things through a staff.

Digby. Those other two, equall'd with me in fate, So were I equall'd with them in renown! Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides; And Tiresias, and Phineas, prophets old. Milt. 2. Intellectually dark; unable to judge; ignorant with to before that which is

unseen.

All authors to their own defects are blind;
Hadst thou but, Janus like, a face behind,
To see the people, what splay mouths they
make;

To mark their fingers pointed at thy back. Dryd. 3. Sometimes of.

Blind of the future, and by rage misled; He pulls his crimes upon his people's head. Dryd. 4. Unseen; out of the publick view; private; generally with some tendency to some contempt or censure.

To grievous and scandalous inconveniencies they make themselves subject, with whom any blind or secret corner is judged a fit house of common prayer. Hooker.

tended with blessings and compliments 5. Not easily discernible; hard to find;

both from those who give, and those who receive. Calmet.

And Jacob said, receive my present at my hand; take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee. Genesis. BLESг. The preterit and participle of bless.

Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest! Blest in thy genius, in thy love too blest! Pope. BLEW. The preterit of blow.

The rest fled into a strong tower, where, seeing no remedy, they desperately blew up themselves, with a great part of the castle, with gunpowder. Knolles. BLEYME. n. s. An inflammation in the foot of a horse, between the sole and the bone. Farrier's Dict. · BLIGHT. n. s. [The etymology unknown.] 1. Mildew; according to Skinner: but it seems taken by most writers, in a general sense, for any cause of the failure of fruits.

I complained to the oldest and best gardeners, who often fell into the same misfortune, and esteemed it seme blight of the spring. Temple. 2. Any thing nipping, or blasting.

When you come to the proof once, the first blight of frost shall most infallibly strip you of all your glory. L'Estrange.

T BLIGHT. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To corrupt with mildew.

This vapour bears up along with it any noxious mineral steams; it then blasts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is sometimes injurious even Woodward. 2. In general, to blast; to hinder from fertility.

to men.

My country neighbours do not find it impossible to think of a lame horse they have, or their blighted corn, till they have run over in their minds all beings.

Locke.

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dark; obscure; unseen.

There be also blind fires under stone, which flame not out; but oil being poured upon them, they flame out. Bacon.

Where else

Shall I inform my unacquainted feet
In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? Milt.
How have we wander'd a long dismal night,
Led through blind paths by each deluding light!
Roscommon.

Part creeping under ground, their journey
blind,

And climbing from below, their fellows meet. Dryden. So mariners mistake the promis'd gust, And, with full sails, on the blind rocks are lost. Dryden A postern door, yet unobserv'd and free, Join'd by the length of a blind gallery, To the king's closet led. Dryden. 6. Blind Vessels. [ with chymists.] Such as have no opening but on one side. To BLIND. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To make blind; to deprive of sight. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames

Into her scornful eyes! Shakspeare. Of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it. 1 Samuel.

A blind guide is certainly a great mischief; but a guide that blinds those whom he should lead, is undoubtedly a much greater. South, 2. To darken; to obscure to the eye.

So whirl the seas, such darkness blinds the sky, That the black night receives a deeper dye. Dryd 3. To darken the understanding.

4.

This my long-suffering, and my day of grace, They who neglect and scorn, shall never taste, But hard be harden'd, blind be blinded more. Milton.

To obscure to the understanding. The state of the controversy between us he endeavoured, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stilling fleet. BLIND. n, s.

1. Something to hinder the sight.

Hardly any thing in our conversation is pure and genuine; civility casts a blind over the duty, under some customary words, L'Estrange.

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BLINDFOLD. adj. [from the verb.] Having the eyes covered.

And oft himself he chanc'd to hurt unwares, Whilst reason, blent through passion, nought descried,

But, as a blindfold bull, at random fares,
And where he hits, nought knows, and where he
hurts, nought cares.
Fairy Queen,
Who blindfold walks upon a river's brim,
When he should see, has he deserv'd to swim?
Dryden.

When lots are shuffled together, or a man blindfold casts a dye, what reason can he have to presume, that he shall draw a white stone rather than a black? South.

Addison.

The women will look into the state of the nation with their own eyes, and be no longer led blindfold by a male legislature. BLINDLY. adv. [from blind.] 1. Without sight.

2. Implicitly; without examination.
The old king, after a long debate,
By his imperious mistress lindly led,
Has given Cydaria to Orbellan's bed. Dryden.

How ready zeal for interest and party, is to charge atheism on those, who will not, without examining, submit, and blindly swallow their Locke.

nonsense.

3. Without judgment or direction.

How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame,

Fell through the mighty void; and, in their fall, Were blindly gather'd in this goodly ball. Dryd. BLINDMAN'S BUFF. n. s. A play in which some one is to have his eyes covered, and hunt out the rest of the company. Disguis'd in all the mask of night, We left our champion on his flight ; At blindman's buff to grope his way, In equal fear of night and day.

Hudibras.

He imagines I shut my eyes again; but surely he fancies I play at blindman's buff with him; for he thinks I never have my eyes open. Stilling. BLINDNESS. n. s. [from blind.] 1. Want of sight.

I will smite every house of the people with blindness. Zechariah.

2. Ignorance; intellectual darkness.
All the rest, as born of savage brood,
But with base thoughts, are into blindness led,
And kept from looking on the lightsome day.

Spenser. Nor can we call it choice, when what we chuse, Folly and blindness only could refuse. Denham. Whensoever we would proceed beyond these simple ideas, we fall presently into darkness and difficulties, and can discover nothing farther but our own blindness and ignorance. Locke.

BLINDNETTLE. n. s. [scrofularia] A
plant.
BLINDSIDE. n. s. [from blind and side.]
Weakness; foible; weak part.

He is too great a lover of himself; this is one of his blindsides; the best of men, I fear, are not without them. Swift. BLINDWORM. n. s. [cæcilia; from blind

and vorm.] A small viper, called likewise a slow worm; believed not to be

venomous.

You spotted snakes, with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; Newts and blindzvorms, do no wrong; Come not near our fairy queen.

Shakspeare.

The greater slow worm, called also the blindworm, is commonly thought to be blind, because of the littleness of his eyes. Grea.

To BLINK. v. n. [lincken, Danish.] 1. To wink, or twinkle with the eyes. So politick, as if one eye

Upon the other were a spy;

That, to trepan the one to think

The other blind, both strove to blink. Hudibras. 2. To see obscurely.

What's here? the portrait of a blinking ideot
Shakspeare.

Sweet and lovely wall,

Shew me thy chink, to blink through with mineeyne. Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. His figure such as might his soul proclaim; One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame. Pope. BLINKARD. n. s. [from blink.] 1. One that has bad eyes.

2. Something twinkling.

In some parts we see many glorious and eminent stars, in others few of any remarkable greatness, and in some none but blinkards, and obHakerill.

scure ones.

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Yet swimming in that sea of blissful joy, He nought forgot. Fairy Queen. The two saddest ingredients in hell, are deprivation of the blissful vision, and confusion of face. Hammond.

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd fove,
In blissful solitude.

Milton. So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays. Pope. First in the fields I try the sylvan strains, Nor blush to sport in Windsor's blissful plains. Pope. BLISSFULLY. adv, [from blissful.] Happily.

BLISSFULNESS. n. s.[from blissful.] Happiness; fulness of joy.

To BLISSOM. v. n. To caterwaul; to be lustful. Dict.

BLISTER. n. s. [bluyster, Dutch.] 1. A pustule formed by raising the cuticle from the cutis, and filled with serous blood.

are.

BLO

In this state she gallops, night by night, O'er ladies lips, who strait on kisses dream, Which of the angry Mab with blisters plagues Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted Shakspeare. I found a great blister drawn by the garlick, but had it cut, which run a good deal of water, but filled again by next night. Temple. 2. Any swelling made by the separation of a film or skin from the other parts. Upon the leaves there riseth a tumour like a blister.

Bacon.

To BLISTER. v. n. [from the noun.] To
rise in blisters.

If I prove honeymouth, let my tongue blister,
And never to my red-look'd anger be
The trumpet any more.

Shakspeare.
Embrace thy knees with loathing hands,
Which blister when they touch thee. Dryden.
To BLISTER v.a.

1. To raise blisters by some hurt, as by a burn, or rubbing.

Look, here comes one, a gentlewoman of mine, Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth, Hath blister'd her report.

Shakspeare.

2. To raise blisters with a medical intention.

Wiseman.

I blistered the legs and thighs; but was too late: he died howling. BLITHE. adj. [blide, Saxon.] Gay; airy; merry; joyous; sprightly; mirth

ful.

We have always one eye fixed upon the countenance of our enemies; and, according to the blite or heavy aspect thereof, our other eye sheweth some other suitable token either of disEke or approbation.

Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny.

Hooker.

Shakspeare. For that fair female troop thou saw'st, that scera'd

Of goddesses, so blithe, so smooth, so gay;-
Yet empty of all good.

Milton.

To whom the wily adder, blithe and glad:
Eincess! the way is ready, and not long. Milt.
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets his scythe.

Milton.

Should he return, that troop so blithe and bold, Precipitant in fear, would wing their flight. Pope. BLITHLY. adv. [from blithe.] In a blithe

manner. BLITHNESS. Įn. s. [from blithe.] BLITHSOMENESS. The quality of being blithe. BLITHSOME. adj. [from blithe.] Gay; cheerful.

Frosty blasts deface

The bloat king. Shakspeare's Hamla. BLOATEDNESS. n. s. [from bloat.] Turgidness; swelling; tumour.

Lassitude, laziness, bloatedness, and scorbutical spots, are symptoms of weak fibres. Arbuthnot. BLOʻBBER. n. s. [from blob.] A word used in some counties for a bubble.

There swimmeth also in the sea a round slimy substance, called a blobber, reputed noisome to Carero. the fish.

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BLOBBERLIP. n. s [from blob, or blobber,
and lib.] A thick lip.

They make a wit of their insipid friend,
His blobberlips and beetlebrows commend. Dryd
adj. Having swelled
BLO'BLIPPED.
BLOBBERLIPPED. or thick lips.
A blobberlipped shell seemeth to be a kind of

Grew..
mussel.
His person deformed to the highest degree;
L'Estrange.
flat-noded, and blobberlipped.
BLOCK. n. s. [block, Dutch; bloc, Fr.j
1. A heavy piece of timber, rather thick
than long.

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Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way for want of a block, he will stumble at a straw. Swift. 4. A rude piece of matter: in contempt.

When, by the help of wedges and beetles, an image is cleft out of the trunk of some tree, yet, after the skill of artificers to set forth such a divine block, it cannot one moment secure itself Stilling fleet. from being eaten by worms. 5. The piece of wood on which hats are formed. Some old writers use block for the hat itself.

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. Shaks. 6. 'The wood on which criminals are beheaded.

Some guard these traitors to the block of death, Treason's true bed, and yielder-up of breath. Shakspeare.

At the instant of his death, having a long beard, after his head was upon the black, he gently drew his beard aside, and said, this hath Bacon. not offended the king.

I'll drag him thence, Even from the holy altar to the block. Dryden., 7. An obstruction; a stop.

Can he ever dream, that the suffering for righteousness sake our felicity, when he sees us run so from it, that no crime is block enough Decay of Picty in our way to stop our flight?

The blithesome year: trees of their shrivell'd fruits
Are widow'd.

Philips.

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To BLOAT. v. a. [probably from blow.] To swell, or make turgid with wind; it has up, an intensive particle.

His rude essays

Encourage him, and bloat him up with praise, That he may get more bulk before he dies. Dryd. The strutting petticoat smooths all distinctions, levels the mother with the daughter. I cannot but be troubled to see so many well shaped innocent virgins, bloated up, and waddling up and Addison. down like beg-bellied women.

To BLOAT. v. n. To grow turgid.

If a person of a firm constitution begins to bleat, from being warm grows cold, his fibres grow Arbuthnot. weak. BLOAT. adj. Swelled with intemperance; .. turgid.

A blockhead; a fellow remarkable for stupidity.

The country is a desert, where the good Gain'd inhabits not; born's not understood; There men became beasts, and prone to all evils; In cities, blocks.

Done.

What tongueless blocks were they, would they not speak? Shakspeare's Richard 111. To BLOCK. v. a. [bloquer, Fr.] 1. To shut up; to enclose, so as to hinder egress; to obstruct.

The states about them should neither by encrease of dominion, nor by blocking of trade, have Clarendon. it in their power to hurt or aunov. They block the castle kept by Bertrain; But now they cry, Down with the palace, fire it. Dryden.

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Broad hats and hoods, and caps, a sable shoal; Thick, and more thick, the black blockade exPope.

tends. To BLOCKA'DE. v. a. [from the noun.] To shut up by obstruction.

Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door, A hundred oxen at your levee roar. Pope. BLOCKHEAD. n. s. [from block and head.] A stupid fellow; a dolt; a man without parts.

Your wit will not so soon out as another man's will; it is strongly wedged up in a blockbead. Shakspeare.

We idly sit like stupid blockheads, Our hands committed to our pockets. Hudibras. A blockhead rubs his thoughtless skull, And thanks his stars he was not born a fool.

Pope. BLOCKHEADED. adj. [from blockhead.] Stupid; dull.

creatures.

Says a blockheaded boy, these are villainous L'Estrange. BLO'CKISH. adj. [from block.] Stupid; dull.

Make a lott'ry,

And, by decree, let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector. Shakspeare.
BLOCKISHLY. ady. [from blockish.] In
a stupid manner.

BLOCKISHNESS. n. s. [from blockish.]
Stupidity; dullness.
BLO'MARY. n. s. The first forge in the

iron mills, through which the metal passes, after it has been first melted from the mine. Dict.

BLO'NKET. 7. s. I suppose for blanket.
Our blanket livery's been all too sad
For thilke same reason, when all is yclad
With pleasance.

BLOOD. n. s. [blod, Saxon.]

Spenser.

1. The red liquor that circulates in the bodies of animals.

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat.

2. Child; progeny.

Genesis.

We'll no more meet, no more see one another: But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter.

3. Family; kindred.

Shakspeare.

As many and as well born bloods as those, Stand in his face, to contradict his claim. Shaks. O! what an happiness is it to find

A friend of our ownblood, a brother kind. Waller. According to the common law of England, in administrations, the whole blood is preferred to the half blood. Ayliffe.

4. Descent; lineage.

Epithets of flattery, deserved by few of them; and not running in a blood, like the perpetual gentleness of the Ormond family. Dryden.

5. Blood royal; royal lineage.
They will almost

Give us a prince o' th' blood, a son of Priam,
In change of him.
Shakspeare.

6. Birth; high extraction.

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding.Shaks. 7. Murder; violent death.

It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood. Shakspeare. The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. Genesis.

8. Life.

9.

When wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house, upon his bed, shall I not therefore now require his blood at your hand? 2 Samuel. For blood. Though his blood or life was at stake: a low phrase.

A crow lay battering upon a muscle, and could not, for bis blood, break the shell to come at the fish. L'Estrange.

10. The carnal part of man.

Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven.

Matthew.

11. Temper of mind; state of the passions. Will you, great sir, that glory blot

In cold blood, which you gain'd in hot? Hudibras. 12. Hot spark; man of fire.

The news put divers young bloods into such a fury, as the ambassadors were not, without peril, to be outraged. Bacon.

13. The juice of any thing.

He washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. Genesis. To BLOOD. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To stain with blood.

Then all approach the slain with vast surprise, And, scarce secure, reach out their spears afar, And blood their points, to prove their partnership in war. Dryden's Fables. He was blooded up to his elbows by a couple of Moors, whom he butchered with his own imperial hands. Addison. 2. To enter; to enure to blood, as a hound. Fairer than fairest, let none ever say, That ye were blooded in a yielded prey. Spenser. 3. To blood, is sometimes to let blood medically.

4. To heat; to exasperate.

When the faculties intellectual are in vigour, not drenched, or, as it were, blooded by the affections. Bacon's Apopbtbegms. By this means, matters grew more exasperate; the auxiliary forces of French and English were much blooded one against another. Bacon. BLOOD-BOLTERED. adj. [from blood and bolter.] Blood sprinkled.

The blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me.
Macbeth.

BLOOD-HOT. adj. [from blood and bot.]
Hot in the same degree with blood.

A good piece of bread first to be eaten, will gain time to warm the beer blood-bot, which then he may drink safely. Locke To BLOOD-LET. v. n. [from blood and

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