blades

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of blade.

   The surgeon laid out several fresh blades on the tray.

   Frost coated the slender blades of grass at dawn.

   Note

   Every meaning of the noun shares this one plural. It covers the cutting edges of knives and razors, the flat working ends of oars, propellers and skates, and the narrow leaves of grass. Context does the sorting, so fresh blades on a surgeon's tray never collide with blades of grass at dawn. The same spelling also serves the verb's present tense, where it names something a person does rather than a thing.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of blade.

   My brother blades down the river path most mornings.

   She blades faster than anyone else in the skating club.

   Note

   Most often the skater's verb: someone on rollerblades blades down a path or around a rink, informally and with no object. The form can also take one. A maker blades a tool by fitting it with an edge, and an attacker blades a victim by stabbing. In slang it names deliberate self-cutting, a use to handle with care. Poetry keeps a quieter sense, where a plant blades as it puts forth leaves.

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