blast
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: bläst
ipa: /blɑːst/
enpr: blăst
ipa: /blæst/
rhymes: -ɑːst
rhymes: -æst
Forms: form: blasts
Etymology: From Middle English blast, blest, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāstu, from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz (“blowing, blast”).
Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”), German blasen (“to blow”), Dutch blazen (“to blow”), Danish blæst (“wind”), French blaser (“to blunt, dull”). More at blow.
Senses: examples: text: And see where surly Winter passes off, / Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; / His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:
text: Their warm, thick under covering of fine wool protects them from the coldest blasts.
ref: 1915 April 24, Enos A. Mills, “Wild Mountain Sheep”, in The Rocky Mountain Wonderland, Houghton Mifflin, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 37:
glosses: A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).
glosses: A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the tuyeres of a blast furnace, a person's mouth, etc.
glosses: A hit of a recreational drug from a pipe.
examples: text: Many tons of iron were melted at a blast.
text: Blast was produced by bellows worked by four 'blowers', three of whom worked at a time while the fourth stood ready to replace one of the others.
ref: 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 146:
glosses: The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace.
glosses: The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
examples: text: arc blast
text: Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,[…]most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.
ref: 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
text: Signalman Bridges was killed by the blast, as was fireman Nightall. Amazingly, driver Gimbert came round some 200 yards away, on the grass outside the Station Hotel where he had been flung.
ref: 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
glosses: An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.
examples: text: My manager gave me a blast yesterday for coming in late.
text: P. S.—I gave the P. O. Department a blast in the papers about sending misdirected letters of mine back to the writers for reshipment, and got a blast in return, through a New York daily, from the New York postmaster.
ref: 1917 [1874], Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain's letters, volume 1, page 226:
glosses: A verbal attack or punishment; a severe criticism or reprimand.
examples: 1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts
Large blasts are often used.
glosses: An explosive charge for blasting.
examples: text: One blast upon his bugle horn / Were worth a thousand men.
ref: 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
text: the blast of triumph o'er thy grave
ref: c. 1832, William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field:
text: Then the captain sung out: ¶ "Stand away!" and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone.
ref: 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 60:
glosses: A loud, sudden sound.
examples: text: […] the microphone has been unostentatiously working out its own destiny here and abroad, mainly in America. Evolution seems to be most promising (in the elimination of "microphone blast" and background noises — common faults of the earlier types) in the direction of the electrostatic, or condenser, microphone, […]
ref: 1969, The Realist: A Journal of Scientific Humanism, page 67:
topics: broadcasting
media
glosses: Unwanted noise from a microphone.
examples: text: By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 4:9:
text: Vertue preferd from fell deſtuctions blaſt,
ref: c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
glosses: A sudden pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.
examples: text: We had a blast at the party last night.
glosses: A good time; an enjoyable moment.
examples: text: an e-mail blast; a fax blast
topics: business
marketing
glosses: A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.
glosses: A flatulent disease of sheep.
examples: text: blast and cruise
topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
coordinate_terms: cruise
glosses: A period of full dosage of PEDs as opposed to a period of reduced intake.
Derived terms: airblast
antiblast
arc blast
ass-blast
at one blast
backblast
beer blast
Blastaway
blast beat
blast chilling
blast 'em up
blaster
blast from the past
blast furnace
blast gear
blast lamp
blastment
blast-off
blastoff
blast pen
blastpipe
blast pipe
blast processing
blastproof
blastwave
blasty
brachyblast
counterblast
e-blast
fan-blast
fingerblast
fireblast
fire blast
full blast
gosling blast
hammer blast
hot blast
jet blast
muzzle blast
nematoblast
on blast
playblast
prop blast
put someone on blast
rice blast
rubber ball blast grenade
superblast
thunderblast
whirlblast
windblast