let.] To bleed; to open a vein medicinally. The chyle is not perfectly assimilated into blood, by its circulation through the lungs, as is known by experiments in blood-letting. Arbuthnot on Aliments. BLOOD-LETTER. n. s. [from blood-let.] A phlebotomist; one that takes away blood medically. This mischief, in aneurisms, proceedeth from the ignorance of the blood-letter, who, not considering the errour committed in letting blood, Wiseman. binds up the arm carelessly. BLOOD-STONE. n. s. [hæmatites; from blood and stone.] A stone. There is a stone, which they call the bloodstone, which, worn, is thought to be good for them that bleed at the nose; which, no doubt, is by astriction, and cooling of the spirits. Bacon. The blood-stone is green, spotted with a bright Woodward on Fossils. blood red. BLOOD-THIRSTY. adj. [from blood and thirst.] Desirous to shed blood. And high advancing his blood-thirsty blade, Struck one of those deformed heads. Fairy Q. The image of God the blood-thirsty have not; Raleigh. for God is charity and mercy itself. BLOOD-VESSEL. n. s. [from blood and vessel.] A vessel appropriated by nature to the conveyance of the blood. The skins of the forehead were extremely tough and thick, and had not in them any bloodAddison. vessel, that we were able to discover. BLOODFLOWER. n. s. [bæmanthus, Lat] A plant. BLOODGUILTINESS. n. s. [from blood and guilty.] Murder; the crime of shedding blood. And were there rightful cause of difference, In a full cry, gaping to swallow me? Southern. And though the villain 'scape a while, he feels As too triumphing, how mine enemies It will manifest itself by its bloodiness; yet He cheer'd my sorrows, and, for sums of gold, 2. Without slaughter. War brings ruin, where it should amend; Full many mischiefs follow crucl wrath; A man, under the transports of a vehement 2. Slaughter; waste of life. So by him Cæsar got the victory, Of wars and bloodshed, and of dire events, He that taketh away his neighbour's living, When redd'ning clouds reflect his bloodshot eye. BLOODSUCKER. n. s. [from blood and 1. A leech; a fly; any thing that sucks 2. A cruel man; a murderer God keep the prince from all the pack of you; Hayward. 2. Cruel; murderous: applied either to By continual martial exercises, without blood, I grant him bloudy, Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful. Shaksp. Thou bloodier villain Will be aveng'd; and th' other's faith approv'd 1 Cold, by retarding the motion of the blood, and suppressing perspiration, produces giddiness, sleepiness, pains in the bowels, looseness, bloody fluxes. Arbuthnot on Air BLOODY-MINDED. adj. [from bloody and mind.] Cruel; inclined to bloodshed. I think you'll make me mad: truth has been at my tongue's end this half hour, and I have not the power to bring it out, for fear of this bloody-minded colonel. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. BLOOM. n. 5. blum, Germ. bloem, Dutch.] 1. A blossom; the flower which precedes the fruit. How nature paints her colours; how the bee Sits on her bloom, extracting liquid sweet. Paradise Lost. A medlar tree was planted by; Dryden. Haste to yonder woodbine bow'rs; The turf with rural dainties shall be crown'd, While opening blooms diffuse their sweets around. Pope. 2. The state of immaturity; the state of any thing improving, and ripening to higher perfection. Were I'no queen, did you my beauty weigh, My youth in bloom, your age in its decay. Dryd. 3. The blue colour upon plums and grapes newly gathered. 4. In the iron works.] A piece of iron wrought into a mass, two feet square. To BLOOM. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To bring or yield blossoms. The rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. Numbers. ment. Beauty, frail flow'r, that ev'ry season fears, Blooms in thy colours for a thousand years. Pope. O greatly bless'd with ev'ry blooming grace! With equal steps the paths of glory trace. Pope. BLO'OMY. adj. [from bloom.] Full of blooms; flowery. O nightingale! that on yon bloomy spray Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still. Milton. Departing spring could only stay to shed Her bloomy beauties on the genial bed, But left the manly summer in her stead. Dryd. Hear how the birds, on ev'ry bloomy spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day. Pope. BLORE. . . [from blow.] Act of blowing; blast an expressive word, but not used. Out rusht, with an unmeasured roar, Those two winds, tumbling clouds in heaps; ushers to either's blore. Chapman's Iliad. BLOʻSSOM. n. s. [blorme, Sax.] The flower that grows on any plant, previous to the seed or fruit. We generally call those flowers blossoms, which are not much regarded in themselves, but as a token of some following production. Cold news for me: Shaksp. Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, To his green years your censure you would suit, Not blast the blossom, but expect the fruit, Dryd. To BLOSSOM. v. n. [from the noun.] To put forth blossoms. This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him. Shakspeare's Henry VIII. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet will I rejoice in the Lord. Habbakkuk. The want of rain, at blossoming time, often occasions the dropping off of the blossoms for want of sap. Mortimer. To BLOT. v. a. [from blottir, Fr. to hide.] 1. To obliterate; to make writing invisible by covering it with ink. You that are king Have caus'd him, by new act of parliament, A man of the most understanding will find it impossible to make the best use of it, while he writes in constraint, perpetually softening, correcting, or blotting out expressions. Swift. 2. To efface; to erase. O Bertram, oh no more my foe, but brother! One act like this blets out a thousand crimes. 4. O sweet Portia ! Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words Unknit that threat'ning unkind brow; He sung how earth blots the moon's gilded wane, Whilst foolish men beat sounding brass in vain. BLOT. n. s. [from the verb.] Cowley. 1. An obliteration of something written. Let flames on your unlucky papers prey; Your wars, your loves, your praises be forgot, And make of all an universal blot. Dryden 2. A blur; a spot upon paper. 3. A spot in reputation; a stain; a disgrace; a reproach. Make known, It is no vicicus blot, murder, or foulness, 5. A sudden calamity; an unexpected evil. Every year they gain a victory, and a town; Dryden. 7. The act of a fly, by which she lodges I much fear, lest with the blows of flies I. To make a current of air. At his sight the mountains are shaken, and at Ecclus. his will the south wind bloweth. Fruits, for long keeping, gather before they are full ripe, and in a dry day, towards noon, and when the wind blorveth not south; and when Bacon's Nat. Hist. the moon is in decrease. By the fragrant winds that blow O'er th' Elysian flow'rs. Pope's St. Cecilia. 2. This word is used sometimes impersonally with it. It blew a terrible tempest at sea once, and L'Estrange. there was one seaman praying. correctness. If it blows a happy gale, we must set up all our sails; though it sometimes happens that our natural heat is more powerful than our care and Dryden. 3. To pant; to puff; to be breathless. Here's Mrs. Page at the door, sweating and Shakspeare. blowing, and looking wildly. Each aking nerve refuse the lance to throw, Says the satyr, if you have gotten a trick of 5. To sound with being blown. 6. There let the prating organ blow, Milton. To sound, or play musically by wind. The priests shall borewith the trumpet. Joshua. When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. Numbers. 7. To blow over. To pass away without effect. Storms, though they blow over divers times, Bacon's Essays. yet may fall at last. When the storm is bloten over, How blest is the swain Who begins to discover An end of his pain. Granville. But those clouds being now happily blown over, and our sun clearly shining out again, I have recovered the relapse. Denham. 8. To blow up. To fly into the air by the force of gunpowder. On the next day, some of the enemy's maga zines blew up; and it is thought they were destroyed on purpose by some of their men. Tatler To BLOW. v. a. 1. To drive by the force of the wind: down; Though castles topple on their warders heads. Fair daughter, blow away those mists and clouds, And let thy eyes shine forth in their full lustre. Denham. These primitive heirs of the christian church could not so easily blow off the doctrine of passive South. obedience. 2. To inflate with wind. I have created the smith that bloweth the Isaiah. coals. Job. A fire not blorun shall consume him. 3. To swell; to puff into size. No blown ambition doth our arms incite, 4. To form into shape by the breath. 5. To sound an instrument of wind musick. Blow the trumpet among the nations. Jeremiah. Where the bright seraphim, in burning row, Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow. Milt. 6. To warm with the breath. When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes frozen home in pail. Shaksp. 7. To spread by report. But never was there man, of his degree, That through the court his courtesy was blown, 8. To blow out. To extinguish by wind Your breath first kindled the dead coal of war, rise, And blow out all the stars that light the skies. Dryden. 9. To blow up. Shakspeare. Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies Shakspeare. 15. To blow upon. To make stale. I am wonderfully pleased, when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon, and which I have never met with in any quotation. Addison. He will whisper an intrigue that is not yet blown upon by common fame. Addison. To BLOW. v. n. [blopan, Saxon.] To We lose the prime, to mark how spring This royal fair See her great brother on the British throne. For thee Idume's spicy forests blow, And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. Pope BLO'WER. n. s. [from blow.] A melter of tin. Add his care and cost in buying wood, and in fetching the same to the blowing-house, together with the blowers' two or three months extreme and increasing labour. Carew. BLOWN. The participle passive of To biow. All the sparks of virtue, which nature had kindled in them, were so bloton to give forth their uttermost heat, that justly it may be affirmed, they inflamed the affections of all that knew them. Sidney. The trumpets sleep, while cheerful horns are blown, Pope. And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone. BLO'W POINT. n. s. A child's play, perhaps like push-pin. Denne "Shortly boys shall not play At spancounter or blowpoint, but shall pay Toll to some courtier. BLOWTH. n. s. [from blow.] Bloom, or blossom. Ambition and covetousness being but green, and newly grown up, the seeds and effects were as yet but potential, and in the blowth and bud. Raleigh. BLOWZE. n. s. A ruddy fat-faced wench. BLO'wZY. adj. [from blowze.] Sun-burnt; high-coloured. BLUBBER. n. s. [See BLOB.] The part Even so lies she, Soon as Glumdalclitch miss'd her pleasing care, To BLU'BBER. v. a. To swell the cheeks Fair streams represent unto me my blubbered With cruel blows she pounds her blubber'd cheeks.' Dryden. BLUBBERED. participial adj. [from To blubber.] Swelled; big: applied commonly to the lip. Thou sing with him, thou booby! never pipe Was so profan'd, to touch that blubber'd lip. Dryden. BLU'DGEON. n. s. A short stick, with one end loaded, used as an offensive weapon. BLUE. adj. [blæp, Sax. bleu, Fr.] One of There's gold, and here Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Shaks. Prior. There was scarce any other colour sensible be sides red and blue; only the blues, and principally the second blue, inclined a little to green. Nervton. BLUEBOTTLE. n. s. [cyanus; from blue and bottle.] 1. A flower of the bell shape; a species of bottle flower. If you put bluebottles, or other blue flowers, into an ant-hill, they will be stained with red; because the ants thrust their stings, and instil into them their stinging liquor. Ray. 2. A fly with a large Line belly. Say, sire of insects, mighty Sol, Prior. A fly upon the chariot pole Cries out, What bluebottle alive Did ever with such fury drive? BLUE-EYED. adj. [from blue and eye.] Having blue eyes. Rise, then,fair blue-eyed maid, rise and discover Thy silver brow, and meet thy golden lover. Crashaw. Nor to the temple was she gone, to move With prayers the blue-eyed progeny of Jove. Dryden. BLUE-HAIRED. adj. [from blue and hair.] Having blue hair. This place, The greatest and the best of all the main, He quarters to his blue-bair'd deities. Milton. BLUELY. adv. [from blue] With a blue colour. This 'squire he dropp'd his pen full soon, While as the light burnt bluely. Swift. BLU'ENESS. n. s. [from blue.] The quality of being blue. In a moment our liquor may be deprived of its blueness, and restored to it again, by the affusion of a few drops of liquors. Boyle on Colours. BLUFF. adj. Big; surly; blustering. Like those whom stature did to crowns prefer, Black-brow'd and bluff, like Homer's Jupiter. Dryden. BLU'ISH. adj. [from blue.] Blue in a small degree. Side sleeves and skirts, round underborne with a bluish tinsel. Shakspeare. At last, as far as I could cast my eyes, Upon the sea, somewhat, methought, did rise Like bluish mists." Dryden. Here, in full light, the russet plains extend; There, wrapt in clouds, the bluish hills ascend. Pope. BLUISHNESS. n. s. [from blue.] A small degree of blue colour. I could make, with crude copper, a solution without the bluishness that is wont to accompany its vulgar solutions. To-BLUNDER. v. n. [blunderen, Dutch; perhaps from blind.] It is one thing to forget matter of fact, and another to blunder upon the reason of it. L'Estrange. The grandees and giants in knowledge, who laughed at all besides themselves, as barbarous and insignificant, yet blundered, and stumbled, about their principal concern. South. 2. To flounder; to stumble. "He who now to sense, now nonsense, leaning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning. Popes To BLUNDER. v. a. To mix foolishly or blindly. He seems to understand no difference between titles of respect and acts of worship; between expressions of esteem and devotion; between religious and civil worship: for be bunders and confounds all these together; and whatever proves one, he thinks, proves all the rest. Stilling fleet. BLU'NDER. n. s. [from the verb.] A gross or shameful mistake. It was the advice of Schomberg to an histo rian, that he should avoid being particular in the drawing up of an army, and other circumstances in the day of battle; for that he had observed notorious blunders and absurdities committed by writers not conversant in the art of war. Addison. It is our own ignorance that makes us charge those works of the Almighty as defects or ,blunders, as ill-contrived or ill-made. Derbam. BLUNDERBUSs. n. s. [from blunder.] A gun that is charged with many bullets, so that, without any exact aim, there is a chance of hitting the mark. There are blunderbusses in every loophole, that go off of their own accord at the squeaking of a fiddle. Dryden. BLU'NDERER. n. s. [from blunder.] A man apt to commit blunders; a blockhead. Another sort of judges will decide în favour of an author, or will pronounce him a mere blunderer, according to the company they have kept. Watts. BLUNDERHEAD. n. s. [from blunder and head. A stupid fellow. rate At the of this thick-skulled blunderhead, every plow-jobber shall take upon him to read upon divinity.. L'Estrange. BLUNT. adj. [etymology uncertain.] 1. Dull on the edge or point; not sharp. Thanks tothat beauty which can give an edge to the bluatest swords. Sidney If the iron be blunt and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength.. Eccles. 2. Dull in understanding; not quick. Valentine being gone, I'll quickly, cross, By some sly trick, blant Thurio's dull proceeding. 4- Shakspearb. Rough; not delicate; not civil. Whitehead, a grave divine, was of a blunt stoical nature. One day the queen happened to say, I like thee the better because thou livest unmarried. He answered, Madam, I like you the worse. Bacon. 3. The mayor of the town came to seize them in a blunt manner, alleging a warrant to stop them. Wetton. 'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do. Boyle. Pope 1. To mistake grossly; to err very widely; to mistake stupidly. It is a word implying contempt. To use too many circumstances, ere one come to the matter, is wearisome; to use none at all, is blunt. Bacon. VOL, I. Z |