Blend
Pronunciation
- enPR: blĕnd, IPA: /blɛnd/
- Rhymes: -ɛnd
- 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 ðŒ±ðŒ»ðŒ°ðŒ½ðŒ³ðŒ°ðŒ½, Old Church Slavonic блєÑти (blesti, "to go astray").
Noun
blend
(plural blends)- 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.
- (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
- (mixture): combination, mix, mixture
- (in linguistics): frankenword, portmanteau, portmanteau word
Full definition of blend
Verb
- (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.
- (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.
- (obsolete) To pollute by mixture or association; to spoil or corrupt; to blot; to stain.