WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Bless
Part of Speech : v.
Etymology : [OE. blessien, bletsen, AS. bletsian, bledsian, bloedsian, fr. bl blood; prob. originally to consecrate by sprinkling with blood. See Blood.]
Definition : 1. To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. Gen. ii. 3.

2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to. The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. Shak. It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee. 1 Chron. xvii. 27 (R. V. )

3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons. Bless them which persecute you. Rom. xii. 14.

4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food. Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. Luke ix. 16.

5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self). [Archaic] Holinshed.

6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]

7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Ps. ciii. 1.

8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate. The nations shall bless themselves in him. Jer. iv. 3.

9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.] And burning blades about their heads do bless. Spenser. Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest. Fairfax.

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.

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. To bless the doors from nightly harm. Milton. -- 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.

t. [imp. & p. p. Blessed or Blest; p. pr. & vb. n. Blessing.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913