• Blend

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: blÄ•nd, IPA: /blÉ›nd/
    • Rhymes: -É›nd
    • Homophones: blende

    Origin

    From Middle English blenden, either from Old English blandan, blondan

    Dictionary.com

    or from Old Norse blanda ("to blend, mix")

    Merriam Webster Online

    (which was originally a strong verb with the present-tense stem blend

    Cleasby-Vigfússon|blanda

    compare blendingr ("a blending, a mixture; a half-breed")

    Cleasby-Vigfússon|blendingr

    ), whence also Danish blande, or from a blend of the Old English and Old Norse terms.

    Online Etymology Dictionary

    Compare Gothic 𐌱𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽, Old Church Slavonic блєсти (blesti, "to go astray").

    Noun

    blend

    (plural blends)
    1. A mixture of two or more things.Their music has been described as a blend of jazz and heavy metal.Our department has a good blend of experienced workers and young promise.
    2. (linguistics) A word formed by combining two other words; a grammatical contamination, portmanteau word.The word brunch is a blend of the words breakfast and lunch.

    Synonyms

    Full definition of blend

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other.
      To make hummus you need to blend chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.
    2. (intransitive) To be mingled or mixed.
      • IrvingThere is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality.
      • To feel no other breezes than are blown
        Through its tall woods with high romances blent - John Keats, 1884
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 3, Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.
      • 2013, William E. Conner, An Acoustic Arms Race, Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close...above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
    3. (obsolete) To pollute by mixture or association; to spoil or corrupt; to blot; to stain.
    © Wiktionary