blade

English

Band saw blades

Knife blades

Etymology

From Middle English blade, blad, from Old English blæd (“leaf”), from Proto-West Germanic *blad, from Proto-Germanic *bladą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥h₃-o-to-m, from *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”).

See also West Frisian bled, Dutch blad, German Blatt, Danish blad, Irish bláth (“flower”), Welsh blodyn (“flower”), Tocharian A pält, Tocharian B pilta (“leaf”), Albanian fletë (“leaf”). Similar usage in German Sägeblatt (“saw blade”, literally “saw leaf”). Doublet of blat. More at blow.

Pronunciation

• enPR: blād, IPA^(key): /bleɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪd

Noun

blade (plural blades)

2. The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
   • 1904, Great Britain. War Office, Dress Regulations for the Officers of the Army (including the Militia): 1904, page 100:

     Sword. — The blade is straight, tapers gradually, is 32 9/16 inches long from shoulder to point, and is fullered on both sides, commencing 2 inches from the shoulder, to about 17 inches from the point, to a thickness of ·035 inch.

   1. (metonymically) A sword or knife.
      • 1984, 2:08:29 from the start, in Dune‎ (Science Fiction), →OCLC:

        Paul: Give the Harkonnen a blade and let him stand forth.
        Shaddam IV: If Feyd wishes, he can meet you with my blade in his hand.

   2. Short for razor blade.
3. The flat functional end or piece of a propeller, oar, hockey stick, chisel, screwdriver, skate, etc.
   • 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:

     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.

4. The narrow leaf of a grass or cereal.
5. (botany) The thin, flat part of a plant leaf, attached to a stem (petiole). The lamina.
6. A flat bone, especially the shoulder blade.
7. A cut of beef from near the shoulder blade (part of the chuck).
8. (chiefly phonetics, phonology) The part of the tongue just behind the tip, used to make laminal consonants.
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.
    • 1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 85:

      He saw a Turnkey in a trice / Unfetter a troublesome blade;

    • 1832, The Universal Songster: Or, Museum of Mirth, page 189:

      But very often blust'ring blades / Are Jerry Sneaks at home.

    • 1948, Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer, New York: Confidential!, Crown, published 1951, page 94:

      Vice does not thrive here, because the young blades seek it elsewhere.

    • 2009, Amanda Vickery, Behind Closed Doors, Yale University Press, page 77:

      Young blades were expected to kick over the traces and skirt disaster, before they graduated to matrimonial housekeeping.

14. (slang, chiefly US) A homosexual, usually male.
15. (slang, chiefly US) An area of a city which is commonly known for prostitution.
16. Thin plate, foil.
17. (photography) One of a series of small plates that make up the aperture or the shutter of a camera.
18. (architecture, in the plural) The principal rafters of a roof.
19. (biology) 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.
20. (computing) Short for blade server.
21. (climbing) Synonym of knifeblade
22. (mathematics) An exterior product of vectors. (The product may have more than two factors. Also, a scalar counts as a 0-blade, a vector as a 1-blade; an exterior product of k vectors may be called a k-blade.)

    Holonym: multivector

23. The part of a key that is inserted into the lock.

    Coordinate term: bow

24. (athletics, informal) An artificial foot used by amputee athletes, shaped like an upside-down question mark.

    Coordinate terms: bladerunner, blade jumper, leaf spring

Derived terms

Translations

References

• Creswell Crags

Verb

blade (third-person singular simple present blades, present participle blading, simple past and past participle bladed)

1. (informal) To skate on rollerblades.

   Want to go blading with me later in the park?

2. (transitive) To furnish with a blade.
3. (intransitive, poetic) To put forth or have a blade.
   • 1633, Phineas Fletcher, “Elisa”, in Piscatorie Eclogues and other Poetical Miscellanies:

     As sweet a plant, as fair a flower, is faded / As ever in the Muses' garden bladed.

4. (transitive) To stab with a blade

   The gang member got bladed in a fight.

5. (transitive, professional wrestling, slang) To cut (a person) so as to provoke bleeding.

Derived terms

• hydroblade

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Balde, abled, albed, baled, blead

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English blade, from Middle English blade. Doublet of blad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bleːd/
• Hyphenation: blade

Noun

blade m (plural blades)

1. (sports, chiefly plural) A running blade (prosthetic limb used for running).

Middle English

Alternative forms

• blad, blaad, bladd, blayde, blayd

Etymology

From Old English blæd, from Proto-West Germanic *blad, from Proto-Germanic *bladą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥h₃otom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blaːd/, /blad/

Noun

blade (plural blades or bladdys)

1. A leaf or blade; a piece foliage in general.
2. A blade (sharp edge of a weapon).
3. Any sharp-bladed slashing or stabbing weapon.
4. (rare) A wooden tile or chip for roofing.
5. (rare) Anything close in appearance or form to a blade.

Derived terms

• bladyn
• blader

Descendants

• English: blade
• Scots: blad, blade, blaud, blaid

References

• “blā̆d(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-29.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbla.dɛ/
• Rhymes: -adɛ
• Syllabification: bla‧de

Adjective

blade

1. inflection of blady:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
   2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural