bless

Formsblesses, blessing, blessed

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To call upon God to grant favor, protection, or care to someone or something.

   The bishop rose to bless the gathered worshippers.

   Before the voyage, the crew gathered to have the chaplain bless the ship.

   Oppositecurse

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To make something holy by means of a religious rite; to sanctify it.

   The abbot blessed the newly built chapel before its first mass.

   Clergy bless the oils used in the sacraments each year.

   Similarconsecrate, sanctify, hallow

   Oppositedesecrate

   Note

   The oldest layer of the word shows through here. Old English bletsian meant "to consecrate (with blood)," from a Germanic verb for marking or hallowing with blood, which was itself built on the word for blood. Consecrating a chapel or the sacramental oils descends directly from that rite. The verb keeps two past forms, blessed and blest, both still in use.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To formally approve of something or give consent to it.

   Management blessed the budget without a single change.

   The committee must bless any proposal before funding is released.

   Similarapprove, endorse, sanction, authorize, okay

   Oppositereject, veto

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To trace the sign of the cross upon someone or something in order to sanctify it.

   The celebrant blessed the bread and wine with a slow sign of the cross.

   Worshippers knelt as the priest moved along the rail to bless them.

   Note

   The gesture is the point. A hand traces the cross over a person or thing, and the tracing itself performs the blessing. Holinshed's Chronicles of 1577 pairs the sign with words: an archbishop says certain prayers and blesses the king. That pairing of gesture and spoken prayer separates this liturgical act from calling down divine favor in general, which needs no gesture at all.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To honor someone or something as holy; to praise them highly for excellence.

   Congregations blessed the Lord's name in song.

   Generations of pilgrims came to bless the holy mountain.

   Similarpraise, glorify, exalt, extol

   Oppositecurse

   Note

   Here the direction reverses: people bless God, rather than God blessing people. The King James Bible of 1611 gives the classic form, "Bless the Lord, O my soul," where blessing is praise offered upward. That is how to tell it from asking for divine favor. If the object is God or something holy, the verb praises. If it is a person, a crop or a ship, it asks.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To regard someone as fortunate or happy; to consider them favored.

   The villagers blessed the couple as the luckiest pair in the valley.

   Future generations will bless those who planted these forests.

   Oppositecurse

   Note

   A biblical construction carries this one. In the King James Bible of 1611, "the nations shall bless themselves in him," which means they count themselves happy or fortunate through someone. The reflexive with in is the pattern to recognize in older texts. Without it, the verb can easily be misread as praying for someone rather than calling them fortunate.

7. 7
   interjectioncolloquialCanadaUK

   Said warmly to express affection or gratitude, or ironically to belittle someone gently.

   Bless, the poor lad waited an hour in the rain for her.

   She thinks she can fix the car herself? Bless.

   Note

   A clipped interjection, short for something like bless your heart. It belongs to informal British and Canadian speech and usually follows ah, aw or oh. Its warmth and its irony use the same words, and only context separates them. "Aw bless" over a batch of muffins is fond, while "Ah bless!" aimed at someone's ignorance is gently condescending.

8. 8
   verbslangtransitive

   To give or send something to someone.

   The label blessed fans with a surprise album over the weekend.

   Bless me with your number and I'll text you the details.

   Note

   Toronto slang, from Multicultural Toronto English, in which blessing someone means handing something over: a link, some cash, a discount. The everyday pattern takes two objects with no with, as in "bless me the link" or "bless me a change," said as a friendly request among peers. It belongs to casual talk and posts, not to writing for strangers.

   Could you bless me the link for the original post?

   I'm actually marved right now, can you bless me some cash?

9. 9
   verbPhilippinestransitive

   To greet an elder by taking their hand and pressing it to one's forehead, or kissing it, as a sign of respect.

   The grandchildren lined up to bless their lola one by one.

   He blessed his uncle's hand the moment he stepped through the door.

   Note

   Philippine English uses the verb for the mano, the gesture of taking an elder's hand to one's forehead. It is often accompanied by the words mano po. The object is usually the elder, so children are told to bless their relatives when they arrive. Outside the Philippines, listeners will hear a religious sense, so writing for a wider audience is clearer when it names the mano gesture.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    In Perl programming, to associate a reference with a package so that it behaves as an object.

    You bless a reference into a package to create an object in Perl.

    The constructor blesses the hash reference into the class before returning it.

    Note

    A programmer's term with a precise meaning. Perl's built-in bless function ties a reference to a package, and from then on, method calls made through that reference are looked up in that package. This is the mechanism behind Perl's object orientation, and it typically sits inside a constructor. The past tense here is only blessed, never blest.

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