Blade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bleɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

Origin

From Middle English, from Old English blæd ("leaf"), from Proto-Germanic *bladą (compare West Frisian bled, Dutch blad, German Blatt, Danish blad) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlh̥₃oto (compare Irish bláth ("flower"), Tocharian A pält, Tocharian B pilta ("leaf"), Albanian fletë ("leaf")), from *bʰleh₃- ("to thrive, bloom"). Similar usage in Sägeblatt ("saw leaf"), the German term for a saw blade. More at blow.

Noun

1. The sharp cutting edge of a knife, chisel, or other tool, a razor blade.
2. The flat functional end of a propeller, oar, hockey stick, screwdriver, skate, etc.
• 2013, Lee S. Langston, The Adaptable Gas Turbine, Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
3. The narrow leaf of a grass or cereal.
4. (botany) The thin, flat part of a plant leaf, attached to a stem (petiole). The lamina.
5. A flat bone, especially the shoulder blade.
6. A cut of beef from near the shoulder blade (part of the chuck).
7. The flat part of the tongue.
8. (poetic) A sword or knife.
9. (archaeology) A piece of prepared, sharp-edged stone, often flint, at least twice as long as it is wide; a long flake of ground-edge stone or knapped vitreous stone.
10. (ultimate frisbee) A throw characterized by a tight parabolic trajectory due to a steep lateral attitude.
11. (sailing) The rudder, daggerboard, or centerboard of a vessel.
12. A bulldozer or surface-grading machine with mechanically adjustable blade that is nominally perpendicular to the forward motion of the vehicle.
13. (dated) A dashing young man.
• ColeridgeHe saw a turnkey in a trice
  Fetter a troublesome blade.
14. (slang, chiefly US) A homosexual, usually male.
15. Thin plate, foil.
16. (architecture, in the plural) The principal rafters of a roof.
17. The four large shell plates on the sides, and the five large ones of the middle, of the carapace of the sea turtle, which yield the best tortoise shell.
18. Airfoil in windmills and windturbines.

Derived terms

Full definition of blade

Verb

1. (informal) To skate on rollerblades.
2. (transitive) To furnish with a blade.
3. (intransitive, poetic) To put forth or have a blade.
• P. FletcherAs sweet a plant, as fair a flower, is faded
  As ever in the Muses' garden bladed.

Derived terms

• hydroblade

Anagrams

• abled
• baled