blast

English

Pronunciation

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• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bläst, IPA^(key): /blɑːst/
• (General American) enPR: blăst, IPA^(key): /blæst/
• Rhymes: -ɑːst, -æst

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English blast, blest, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāstu, from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz (“blowing, blast”).

Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”), German blasen (“to blow”), Dutch blazen (“to blow”), Danish blæst (“wind”), French blaser (“to blunt, dull”). More at blow.

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

2. A violent gust of wind.
   • 1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC:

     And see where surly Winter passes off, / Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; / His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill.

   • 1915 April, Enos A. Mills, “Wild Mountain Sheep”, in The Rocky Mountain Wonderland, Houghton Mifflin, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 37:

     Their warm, thick under covering of fine wool protects them from the coldest blasts.

3. A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the mouth, etc.
4. A hit of a recreational drug from a pipe.
5. The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace.

   many tons of iron were melted at a blast

   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 146:

     Blast was produced by bellows worked by four 'blowers', three of whom worked at a time while the fourth stood ready to replace one of the others.

6. The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
7. An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.

   arc blast

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within, […] most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno.  As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Signalman Bridges was killed by the blast, as was fireman Nightall. Amazingly, driver Gimbert came round some 200 yards away, on the grass outside the Station Hotel where he had been flung.

8. A verbal attack or punishment; a severe criticism or reprimand.

   My manager gave me a blast yesterday for coming in late.

   • 1917 [1874], Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], edited by Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain's letters, volume 1, page 226:

     P. S.—I gave the P. O. Department a blast in the papers about sending misdirected letters of mine back to the writers for reshipment, and got a blast in return, through a New York daily, from the New York postmaster.

9. An explosive charge for blasting.
   • 1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts

     Large blasts are often used.

10. A loud, sudden sound.
    • 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; , Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

      One blast upon his bugle horn / Were worth a thousand men.

    • c. 1832, William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field:

      the blast of triumph o'er thy grave

    • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) , London: Chatto & Windus, , →OCLC, page 60:

      Then the captain sung out: ¶ "Stand away!" and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone.

11. A sudden, pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Job 4:9:

      By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

    • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. , London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  , published 1609, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

      Vertue preferd from fell deſtuctions blaſt,

12. (figuratively, informal) A good time; an enjoyable moment.

    We had a blast at the party last night.

13. (marketing) A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.

    an e-mail blast; a fax blast

14. A flatulent disease of sheep.
15. (bodybuilding, slang) A period of full dosage of PEDs as opposed to a period of reduced intake.

    Coordinate term: cruise

    blast and cruise

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Irish: bleaist

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English blǣstan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blēstijan, from Proto-Germanic *blēstijaną. Possibly related to Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (transitive) To make an impression on, by making a loud blast or din.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Trumpeters, / With brazen din blast you the city's ear.

2. (intransitive) To make a loud noise.
3. (transitive, informal) To play (music) very loudly out of a speaker.
   • 2008 April 24, [email protected], “ARRMO FEST”, in alt.rock-n-roll.metal.oldschool‎ (Usenet):

     Some kid is in his car blasting rap. You know, bass in the trunk and you can hear it 4 blocks away? I signal over to him and say "Hey, turn it up, I can't hear it." He turns around and says, "Shut Up Grandpa."

4. (transitive) To shatter, as if by an explosion.
5. (transitive) To open up a hole in, usually by means of a sudden and imprecise method (such as an explosion).

   Blast right through it.

6. (transitive) To curse; to damn.

   Blast it! Foiled again.

7. (transitive, science fiction) To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles).

   Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.

8. (soccer) To shoot; kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
   • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎:

     A Ricketts and Stuart Holden one-two around the box then created a decent chance for an almost instant equaliser - but Welsh full-back Ricketts blasted over when a calmer finish could have been rewarded.

9. (transitive) To criticize or reprimand severely; to verbally discipline or punish.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:criticize

   My manager suddenly blasted me yesterday for being a little late to work for five days in a row, because I was never getting myself up on time.

   • 2014 March 27, Robin Marantz Henig, “Fictional Plotlines and Real Assisted Suicide”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Mark Pritchard, a Tory member of Parliament, blasted the show for treating a somber subject as “a matter of fun.”

10. (transitive) To bring destruction or ruin on; to destroy.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

      Both Leo and myself rushed to her - she was stone dead - blasted into death by some mysterious electric agency or overwhelming will-force whereof the dread She had command.

11. (transitive) To blight or wither.

    A cold wind blasted the rose plants.

12. (intransitive, obsolete) To be blighted or withered.

    The bud blasted in the blossom.

    • c. 1592, Walter Raleigh, “The Lie”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), published 1608:

      Tell age it daily wasteth;
      tell honour how it alters;
      Tell beauty how she blasteth;
      tell fauour how it falters:
      And as they shall reply,
      giue euery one the lye.

13. (intransitive, obsolete) To blow, for example on a trumpet.
14. (bodybuilding, slang) To have a period of full dosage of PEDs as opposed to reducing them during a cruise period.

    Coordinate term: cruise

    blast and cruise

Derived terms

Descendants

• ⇒ Italian: blastare

Translations

Interjection

blast

1. (chiefly British, informal, mildly blasphemous) Used to show anger or disappointment: damn

Usage notes

Can be used on its own or in the form "blast it!".

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Ancient Greek βλαστός (blastós, “germ or sprout”).

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

1. (cytology) An immature or undifferentiated cell (e.g., lymphoblast, myeloblast).

Derived terms

• blast cell
• blastocyte
• blastoma

Translations

Etymology 4

From BLAST (an acronym for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (biology, informal, transitive) To run a nucleotide sequence (for nucleic acids) or an amino acid sequence (for proteins) through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).
   • 2004, Andreas Bommarius, Bettina Riebel-Bommarius, Biocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications, page 425:

     Blasting nucleotide sequences is not always that easy, because there is more ambiguity to the nucleotide sequence, and good hits have to have a 70% homology over the whole sequence to be reliable, compared to 25% with proteins.

Alternative forms

• BLAST

Anagrams

• Balts, blats

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

blast

1. inflection of blasen:
   1. second-person plural present
   2. plural imperative

Irish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βλαστός (blastós, “germ, sprout”).

Noun

blast m (genitive singular blast, nominative plural blastaí)

1. (cytology) blast

Declension

Derived terms

• -blast
• blastchill (“blast cell”)

Mutation

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from English blast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blast/

Noun

blast m (plural blastijiet)

1. blast (violent gust of wind)

Related terms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• blaste, blæst, blest

Etymology

From Old English blǣst, from Proto-West Germanic *blāst(i), from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz; equivalent to blasen +‎ -th.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blast/, /blɛːst/

Noun

blast (plural blastes)

1. A blast; a sudden and forceful motion of wind.
2. One's breathing or respiring; the act of respiration.
3. The blast produced by a musical instrument.
4. An emission or expulsion of fire or flames.
5. The sound produced by thunder or storms.
6. (rare) The making of a pronouncement or proclamation.
7. (rare) One's spiritual essence; the soul.
8. (rare) A striking or attack.
9. (rare) Flatulence; the making of a fart.

Derived terms

• blasten

Descendants

• English: blast
  • → Irish: bleaist
• Scots: blast

References

• “blast, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-27.

Swedish

Etymology

From dialectal blasta, formed from blädhia, bläda, both variants of blad (“leaf”).

Noun

blast c (definite form blasten)

1. (uncountable) The stem and leaves of a vegetable, of which you're only supposed to eat the root. E.g. in potatoes or carrots.