DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Bless v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blessed or Blest; p. pr. & vb. n. Blessing.]
1. To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. --Gen. ii. 3.
2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. --Shak.
It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee. --1 Chron. xvii. 27 (R. V. )
3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
Bless them which persecute you. --Rom. xii. 14.
4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. --Luke ix. 16.
5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self). [Archaic]
6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. --Ps. ciii. 1.
8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
The nations shall bless themselves in him. --Jer. iv. 3.
9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.]
And burning blades about their heads do bless. --Spenser.
Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest. --Fairfax.
Note: ☞ This is an old sense of the word, supposed by Johnson, Nares, and others, to have been derived from the old rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all parts of it. “In drawing [their bow] some fetch such a compass as though they would turn about and bless all the field.”
Bless me! Bless us! an exclamation of surprise. --Milton.
To bless from, to secure, defend, or preserve from. “Bless me from marrying a usurer.” --Shak.
To bless the doors from nightly harm. --Milton.
-- To bless with, To be blessed with, to favor or endow with; to be favored or endowed with; as, God blesses us with health; we are blessed with happiness.
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Blest, a. Blessed. “This patriarch blest.”
White these blest sounds my ravished ear assail. --Trumbull.
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bless
v 1: give a benediction to; "The dying man blessed his son" [ant:
curse]
2: confer prosperity or happiness on
3: make the sign of the cross over someone in order to call on
God for protection; consecrate [syn: sign]
4: render holy by means of religious rites [syn: consecrate,
hallow, sanctify] [ant: desecrate]
[also: blest]
blest
adj : highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace); "our
blessed land"; "the blessed assurance of a steady
income" [syn: blessed] [ant: cursed]