blessing

English

Etymology

From Middle English blessinge, blessynge, from Old English blētsung, blēdsung (“a blessing”), equivalent to bless +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɛs.ɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsɪŋ

Noun

blessing (plural blessings)

1. Some kind of divine or supernatural aid, or reward.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XVII, page 28:

     Henceforth, wherever thou may’st roam,
     ⁠My blessing, like a line of light,
     ⁠Is on the waters day and night,
     And like a beacon guards thee home.

2. A pronouncement invoking divine aid.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

3. Good fortune.
4. (paganism) A modern pagan ceremony.
5. The act of declaring or bestowing favor; approval.

   We will not proceed without the executive director's blessing.

   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:

     Jocasta had my blessing when she seduced you, you stuck-up piffler.

6. Something someone is glad of.

   After two weeks of sun, last night's rainfall was a blessing.

7. A prayer before a meal; grace.
8. A group of unicorns.
   • 2008 September 11, Betsy Schiffman, “Time To Trash the Intellectual Property System, Says Report”, in Wired:

     And since we’re laying out our wishes, we’d also like a blessing of unicorns and one million dollars.

   • 2009, Andrew Orlowski, "Facebook music dashboard: Revenue at last?", The Register, 13 September 2011:

     Then a blessing of unicorns charged into the studio, and I was carried away to be re-educated.

   • 2011, Suzette Mayr, Monoceros, Coach House Books, published 2011, →ISBN, page 94:

     She just wants to talk to her friends on www.unicornwillsaveus.com or write in her journal or flump on her bedroom floor with her blessing of unicorns: her posters, figurines, stickers, temporary tattoos of anatomically correct unicorns.

Antonyms

• curse

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

blessing

1. present participle and gerund of bless

Anagrams

• glibness