Blaze

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪz

From Middle English blase, from Old English blæse ("firebrand, torch, lamp, flame"), from Proto-Germanic *blasōn ("torch"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- ("to shine, be white"). Cognate with Low German blas ("burning candle, torch, fire"), Middle High German blas ("candle, torch, flame"). Compare Dutch bles ("blaze"), German Blesse ("blaze"), Swedish bläs ("blaze").

Full definition of blaze

Noun

1. A fire, especially a fast-burning fire producing a lot of flames and light.
• 1907, w, The Younger Set Chapter 3, Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; … .
2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat.to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun
• MiltonO dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon!
3. The white or lighter-coloured markings on a horse's face.The palomino had a white blaze on its face.
4. A high-visibility orange colour, typically used in warning signs and hunters' clothing.
5. A bursting out, or active display of any quality; an outburst.
• Shakespearehis blaze of wrath
• MiltonFor what is glory but the blaze of fame?
6. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark.
• CarltonThree blazes in a perpendicular line on the same tree indicating a legislative road, the single blaze a settlement or neighbourhood road.

From Middle English blasen, from Middle English blase ("torch"). See above.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be on fire, especially producing a lot of flames and light.
   The campfire blazed merrily.
2. (intransitive) To shine like a flame.
• William WordsworthAnd far and wide the icy summit blazed.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path …. It twisted and turned,...and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.
3. (transitive) To make a thing shine like a flame.
4. (transitive) To mark or cut (a route, especially through vegetation), or figuratively, to set a precedent for the taking-on of a challenge.
   The guide blazed his way through the undergrowth.
   Darwin blazed a path for the rest of us.
5. (slang) To smoke marijuana.
• Most commonly used in the infinitive, simple present, or simple past:
6. I like to blaze;  let's go blaze;  we blazed last night;  he blazes every day
• Or less commonly, in the present progressive:
7. he is blazing right now

Related terms

• ablaze