Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BLANK, a. [Fr. blanc; It. bianco; Sp. blanco; D. and Ger. blank; Dan. blank, shining; Sw. blanck, white, shining; blankia, to shine. See Bleach.]

1. Void; empty; consequently white; as, a blank paper.
2. White or pale; as, the blank moon. – Milton.
3. Pale from fear or terror; hence, confused; confounded; dispirited; dejected. Adam … astonished stood, and blank. – Milton.
4. Without rhyme; as, blank verse, verse in which rhyme is wanting.
5. Pure; entire; complete. – Beddoes.
6. Not containing balls or bullets; as, blank cartridges. This word is applied to various other objects, usually in the sense of destitution, emptiness; as, a blank line; a blank space, in a book, &c.

BLANK, n.

1. Any void space; a void space on paper, or in any written instrument.
2. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery which draws no prize.
3. A paper unwritten; a paper without marks or characters.
4. A paper containing the substance of a legal instrument, as a deed, release, writ or execution, with vacant spaces left to be filled with names, date, descriptions, &c.
5. The point to which an arrow is directed, marked with white paper. [Little used.] – Shak.
6. Aim; shot. [Obs.] Shak.
7. Object to which any thing is directed. – Shak.
8. A small copper coin formerly current in France, at the rate of 5 deniers Tournois. There were also pieces of three blanks, and of six; but they are now become moneys of account. – Encyc.
9. In coinage, a plate or piece of gold or silver, cut and shaped, but not stamped. – Encyc. Blank-bar, in law, a common bar, or a plea in bar, which, in an action of trespass, is put in to oblige the plaintif to assign the place where the trespass was committed. – Encyc. Point-blank, in gunnery, the shot of a gun leveled horizontally. The distance between the piece, and the point where the shot first touches the ground, is called the point-blank range; the shot proceeding on a straight line, without curving. – Encyc.

BLANK, v.t.

1. To make void; to annul. – Spenser.
2. To deprive of color, the index of health and spirits; to damp the spirits; to dispirit or confuse; as, to blank the face of joy. – Shak. Tillotson.

BLANK'ED, pp.

Confused; dispirited.

BLANK'ET, n. [Fr. blanchet, the blanket of a printing press.]

1. A cover for a bed, made of coarse wool loosely woven, and used for securing against cold. Blankets are used also by soldiers, and seamen, for covering.
2. A kind of pear, sometimes written after the French, blanquet.
3. Among printers, woolen cloth or white baize, to lay between the tympans. – Print. Guide.

BLANK'ET, v.t.

1. To toss in a blanket by way of punishment; an ancient custom. The Emperor Otho used to sally forth in dark nights, and if he found a drunken man, he administered the discipline of the blanket. – Encyc.
2. To cover with a blanket.

BLANK'ET-ING, n.

1. The punishment of tossing in a blanket.
2. Cloth for blankets.

BLANK'ET-ING, ppr.

Tossing in a blanket.

BLANK'LY, adv.

In a blank manner; with paleness or confusion.

BLANK'NESS, n.

State of being blank.

BLANK'-VERSE, n.

Any verse without rhyme.

BLARE, n.

1. Roar; noise. [Little used.] And sigh for battle's blare. – Barlow.
2. A small copper coin of Bern, nearly of the same value as the ratz. – Encyc.

BLARE, v.i. [Old Belgic blaren; Teut. blarren; L. ploro, to cry out, to bawl, to weep; Ir. blor, or glor, a noise, or voice. The radical sense is to shoot or drive forth, or to spread.]

1. To roar; to bellow. [Little used.] – Johnson.
2. To sweat or melt away, as a candle. – Bailey. This is, I believe, usually called flare.

BLAS-PHEME', v.i.

1. To utter blasphemy. He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. – Mark iii.
2. To arrogate the prerogatives of God. This man blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins but God? – Matth. ix. Mark ii.

BLAS-PHEME', v.t. [Gr. βλασφημεω. The first syllable is the same as in blame, blasme, denoting injury; probably, Fr. blesser, to hurt, that is, to strike; L. lædo, læsus. Hence in Sp. blasfemable is blamable. The last syllable is the Gr. φημι, to speak.]

1. To speak of the Supreme Being in terms of impious irreverence; to revile or speak reproachfully of God, or the Holy Spirit. – 1 Kings xxi. Mark iii.
2. To speak evil of; to utter abuse or calumny against; to speak reproachfully of. – Pope.

BLAS-PHEM'ER, n.

One who blasphemes; one who speaks of God in impious and irreverent terms. – 1 Tim. i.

BLAS-PHEM'ING, ppr.

Uttering impious or reproachful words concerning God.

BLAS'PHE-MOUS, a.

Containing blasphemy; calumnious; impiously irreverent or reproachful toward God. – Sidney.

BLAS'PHE-MOUS-LY, adv.

Impiously; with impious irreverence to God.

BLAS'PHE-MY, n.

1. An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous or irreverent words uttered impiously against Jehovah. Blasphemy is an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and belonging to him, or attributing to him that which is not agreeable to his nature. – Linwood. In the middle ages, blasphemy was used to denote simply the blaming or condemning of a person or thing. Among the Greeks, to blaspheme was to use words of ill omen, which they were careful to avoid. – Encyc.
2. That which derogates from the prerogatives of God. – Mark ii.

BLAST, n. [Sax. blæst, a puff of wind, a blowing; Sw. blåst; Dan. blæst; Ger. blasen; D. blaazen; Dan. blæser; Sw. blåsa, to blow; whence Ger. blase, D. blaas, Sw. blåsa, a bladder. Hence Eng. blaze, which is primarily a blowing or swelling. Ice. bloes, to blow. Qu. Fr. blaser, to burn up, to consume. The primary sense is to rush or drive; hence to strike.]

1. A gust or puff of wind; or a sudden gust of wind.
2. The sound made by blowing a wind instrument. – Shak.
3. Any pernicious or destructive influence upon animals or plants.
4. The infection of any thing pestilential; a blight on plants.
5. A sudden compression of air, attended with a shock, caused by the discharge of cannon.
6. A forcible stream of air from the mouth, from the bellows or the like.
7. A violent explosion of gunpowder, in splitting rocks, and the explosion of inflammable air in a mine.
8. The whole blowing of a forge necessary to melt one supply of ore; a common use of the word among workmen in forges in America.

BLAST, v.t. [Literally, to strike.]

1. To make to wither by some pernicious influence, as too much heat or moisture, or other destructive cause; or to check growth and prevent from coming to maturity and producing fruit; to blight, as trees or plants.
2. To affect with some sudden violence, plague, calamity, or destructive influence, which destroys or causes to fail; as, to blast pride or hopes. The figurative senses of this verb are taken from the blasting of plants, and all express the idea of checking growth, preventing maturity, impairing, injuring, destroying, or disappointing of the intended effect; as, to blast credit, or reputation; to blast designs.
3. To confound, or strike with force, by a loud blast or din. – Shak.
4. To split rocks by an explosion of gunpowder. They did not stop to blast this ore. – Forster's Kalm's Travels.

BLAST'ED, pp.

Affected by some cause that checks growth, injures, impairs, destroys, or renders abortive; split by an explosion of gunpowder.

BLAST'ER, n.

He or that which blasts or destroys.

BLAST'ING, n.

A blast; destruction by a pernicious cause; explosion.