[syn: beatified, blessed]
5. enjoying the bliss of heaven;
6. characterized by happiness and good fortune;
- Example: "a blessed time"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Bless \Bless\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blessedor Blest; p. pr. &
vb. n. Blessing.] [OE. blessien, bletsen, AS. bletsian,
bledsian, bloedsian, fr. bl?d blood; prob. originally to
consecrate by sprinkling with blood. See Blood.]
1. To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
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And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
--Gen. ii. 3.
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2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity
or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
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The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
--Shak.
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It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy
servant, that it may continue forever before thee.
--1 Chron.
xvii. 27 (R.
V. )
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3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to
invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
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Bless them which persecute you. --Rom. xii.
14.
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4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities
upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
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Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and
looking up to heaven, he blessed them. --Luke ix.
16.
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5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self).
[Archaic] --Holinshed.
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6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
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7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
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Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. --Ps. ciii. 1.
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8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
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The nations shall bless themselves in him. --Jer.
iv. 3.
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9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.]
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And burning blades about their heads do bless.
--Spenser.
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Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest.
--Fairfax.
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Note: This is an old sense of the word, supposed by Johnson,
Nares, and others, to have been derived from the old
rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all
parts of it. "In drawing [their bow] some fetch such a
compass as though they would turn about and bless all
the field." --Ascham.
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Bless me! Bless us! an exclamation of surprise. --Milton.
To bless from, to secure, defend, or preserve from. "Bless
me from marrying a usurer." --Shak.
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To bless the doors from nightly harm. --Milton.
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To bless with, To be blessed with, to favor or endow
with; to be favored or endowed with; as, God blesses us
with health; we are blessed with happiness.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Blessed \Bless"ed\ (bl[e^]s"[e^]d), a.
1. Hallowed; consecrated; worthy of blessing or adoration;
heavenly; holy.
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O, run; prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet. --Milton.
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2. Enjoying happiness or bliss; favored with blessings;
happy; highly favored.
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All generations shall call me blessed. --Luke i. 48.
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Towards England's blessed shore. --Shak.
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3. Imparting happiness or bliss; fraught with happiness;
blissful; joyful. "Then was a blessed time." "So blessed a
disposition." --Shak.
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4. Enjoying, or pertaining to, spiritual happiness, or
heavenly felicity; as, the blessed in heaven.
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Reverenced like a blessed saint. --Shak.
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Cast out from God and blessed vision. --Milton.
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5. (R. C. Ch.) Beatified.
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6. Used euphemistically, ironically, or intensively.
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Not a blessed man came to set her [a boat] free.
--R. D.
Blackmore.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
blessed
adj 1: highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace);
"our blessed land"; "the blessed assurance of a steady
income" [syn: blessed, blest] [ant: cursed,
curst]
2: worthy of worship; "the Blessed Trinity"
3: expletives used informally as intensifiers; "he's a blasted
idiot"; "it's a blamed shame"; "a blame cold winter"; "not a
blessed dime"; "I'll be damned (or blessed or darned or
goddamned) if I'll do any such thing"; "he's a damn (or
goddam or goddamned) fool"; "a deuced idiot"; "an infernal
nuisance" [syn: blasted, blame, blamed, blessed,
damn, damned, darned, deuced, goddam, goddamn,
goddamned, infernal]
4: Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy
of veneration [syn: beatified, blessed]
5: enjoying the bliss of heaven
6: characterized by happiness and good fortune; "a blessed time"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
92 Moby Thesaurus words for "blessed":
Elysian, Olympian, absolute, auspicious, beaming, beatific,
beatified, beatitude, blamed, blankety-blank, blasted,
blessed with luck, blessedness, bliss, blissful, blooming,
canonized, capering, celestial, cheerful, chirping, confounded,
consecrated, cursed, cussed, dadburned, dancing, danged, darn,
darned, dashed, dedicated, deuced, devoted, doggone, doggoned,
downright, ethereal, extramundane, extraterrestrial, favored,
flushed with joy, fortunate, from on high, gay, glad, glorified,
glowing, goldanged, goldarned, goshdarn, hallowed, happy, heavenly,
in glory, in luck, infernal, joyful, joyous, laughing, leaping,
lucky, otherworldly, outright, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac,
paradisic, perfect, positive, providential, purring, radiant,
regular, ruddy, sacred, sainted, saintly, sanctified, set apart,
singing, smiling, smirking, sparkling, starry-eyed, supernal,
thrice happy, transcendental, transmundane, unearthly, unmitigated,
unworldly