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blast

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: BLAST, bläst, blåst, blæst, -blast, and blast-

English

Pronunciation

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 (countable and uncountable, plural blasts)

  2. A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).
    Hyponyms: windblast, airblast; prop blast, prop wash, jet blast
  3. A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the tuyeres of a blast furnace, a person's 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.
  10. (countable) A loud, sudden sound.
  11. (uncountable, broadcasting) Unwanted noise from a microphone.
    • 1969, The Realist: A Journal of Scientific Humanism, page 67:
      […] the microphone has been unostentatiously working out its own destiny here and abroad, mainly in America. Evolution seems to be most promising (in the elimination of "microphone blast" and background noises — common faults of the earlier types) in the direction of the electrostatic, or condenser, microphone, […]
  12. A sudden pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.
  14. (figuratively, informal) A good time; an enjoyable moment.
    We had a blast at the party last night.
  16. (marketing) A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.
    an e-mail blast; a fax blast
  17. A flatulent disease of sheep.
  18. (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
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

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.
  2. (intransitive) To make a loud noise.
  3. (transitive, informal) To play (music) very loudly out of a speaker.
    • 2008 April 24, neilc...@yahoo.com, “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, intransitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To shoot; to attack or shoot (someone or a place).
    They showed up blasting.
    That's when we decided to blast him.
  10. (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.”
  11. (transitive) To bring destruction or ruin on; to destroy.
  12. (transitive) To blight or wither.
    A cold wind blasted the rose plants.
  13. (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.
  14. (intransitive, obsolete) To blow, for example on a trumpet.
  15. (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
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Interjection

blast

  1. (chiefly British, informal, mildly blasphemous) Used to show anger or disappointment: damn
    • 2025 February 19, Christian Wolmar, “Reeves talks of 'growth' but pays lip service to the railway”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 35:
      Now, where's my Labour membership card, so I can consider whether to tear it up? Blast, it's plastic...
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
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

Anagrams

German

Pronunciation

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

More information bare forms, singular ...
Declension of blast (fourth declension)
bare forms
singular plural
nominative blast blastaí
vocative a bhlast a bhlastaí
genitive blast blastaí
dative blast blastaí
forms with the definite article
singular plural
nominative an blast na blastaí
genitive an bhlast na mblastaí
dative leis an mblast
don bhlast		 leis na blastaí
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Derived terms

  • -blast
  • blastchill (“blast cell”)

Mutation

More information radical, lenition ...
Mutated forms of blast
radical lenition eclipsis
blast bhlast mblast
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Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from English blast.

Pronunciation

Noun

blast m (plural blastijiet)

  1. blast (violent gust of wind)

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Descendants

References

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.

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