blade
Pluralblades
Pluralblades
- 1The flat, sharp part of a knife or tool used for cutting.
He sharpened the blade until it could slice paper.
Be careful, because the blade is very sharp.
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- 2A sword or large knife.
He drew his blade and faced the bandit.
The old soldier kept his blade clean and sharp.
Similarsword
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- 3The flat end of things like an oar, propeller, hockey stick, or skate.
The blade of the oar dipped quietly into the water.
He replaced the worn blade on his ice skate.
- 4A flat bone, especially the one in your shoulder.
He felt a sharp pain near his shoulder blade.
The doctor pressed gently on the blade of her shoulder.
- 5The long, narrow leaf of grass or a grain plant.
A single blade of grass poked through the snow.
The lawn was covered in thin green blades.
Similarleaf
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- 6The thin, flat part of a leaf that joins to its stem.
Like the flat green part of a leaf, not the small stem holding it up.
The wide blade of the leaf turned toward the sun.
Water collected on the flat blade of each leaf.
Similarlamina
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- 7Short for razor blade. Use it when it is clear you mean the cutting part used for shaving.
He fitted a fresh blade into the razor before shaving.
This blade is too dull to give a close shave.
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- 8The flat part of a key that slides into a lock.
The blade of the key was bent and would not fit.
He filed down the blade to make a copy.
- 9A cut of beef from near the shoulder of the cow.
She slow-cooked the blade until the meat fell apart.
He bought a blade to make the stew.
- 10
- 11To skate using rollerblades.
They love to blade in the park on weekends.
She bladed down the smooth path beside the river.
Similarrollerblade, skate
- 12
- 13A long, thin piece of sharp stone, such as flint, shaped to a cutting edge.
Early people used a sharp stone blade to cut meat.
The dig uncovered several flint blades.
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- 14
- 15The flat underwater part of a boat, such as a rudder, that steers or steadies it.
She lifted the blade out of the water as the boat reached shallow ground.
A cracked blade made the dinghy hard to steer.
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- 16One of the thin metal plates that open and shut to let light into a camera.
Like a small door that opens and closes to let in light.
A speck of dust had jammed one blade of the camera's shutter.
When you press the button, the blades snap open for a fraction of a second.
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- 17A curved artificial foot that some athletes who have lost a leg use to run.
Like a springy diving board that pushes you back up.
The sprinter strapped on her blade before the race.
He trains every day on a pair of carbon blades.
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- 18A thin metal spike that climbers hammer into narrow cracks in rock.
Like a thin wedge you tap into a crack to hold on.
She hammered a blade into the thin crack for protection.
The old route still had rusty blades fixed in the seams.
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- 19Ellipsis of blade server. A slim computer that slides into a shared frame alongside others.
The technician slotted a new blade into the empty bay.
Each blade runs its own operating system but shares power and cooling.
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- 20The flat part of the tongue just behind the tip, used to make certain speech sounds.
Like the flat part of a spoon just behind its tip.
You raise the blade of your tongue to say sounds like 's'.
Speech therapists watch how the tongue's blade moves during practice.
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- 21To fit a cutting edge or blade onto something.
The factory blades each saw before it ships.
Workers blade the new tools by hand.
- 22A bold, lively young man who likes to show off.
Like a confident young man who turns every head at a party.
Her grandfather had been quite a blade in his youth.
He saw a Turnkey in a trice / Unfetter a troublesome blade;
1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert SoutheyHere, blade means a bold, lively young man.Note
- 23To cut someone, usually yourself, on purpose so that they bleed.
The wrestler bladed himself to add drama to the match.
Some performers blade their foreheads during big fights.
Similarcut
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- 24A frisbee throw that flies in a steep, sharp curve.
Like skipping a flat stone that curves hard and then drops.
He threw a quick blade over the defender's head.
Her blades curve sharply and drop fast.
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- 25One of the main slanted beams that hold up a roof.
Like the two slanted poles that hold up a tent.
The carpenter replaced a cracked blade in the old barn roof.
Heavy oak blades supported the medieval hall's roof.
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- 26A gay person, usually a man.
He quietly told his closest friends that he was a blade.
The club welcomed blades when few other places would.
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- 27A part of a city known for prostitution.
The officer patrolled the blade late into the night.
Several blades sprang up near the old rail yards.
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- 28A pure, ringing quality in a singer's voice.
Her voice isn't very big, but it has real blade.
Listeners praised the blade in his upper register.
Similarring
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- 29Of a plant, to grow or send up its leaves.
Like a seed pushing its first green shoots up through the soil.
By April the young wheat had begun to blade.
The corn blades early in a warm spring.
Similarsprout
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- 30One of the large plates on a sea turtle's shell that give the best tortoiseshell.
Like the big plates that make up a turtle's hard shell.
Craftsmen prized each blade taken from the turtle's shell.
The smooth blades were polished into combs and boxes.
Note
- 31In advanced math, the result of combining several vectors by a special kind of multiplication.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Old English 'blæd', meaning 'leaf'. This came from older Germanic and Indo-European roots meaning 'to bloom' or 'thrive'.