blaze

Etymology 1

From Middle English blase, from Old English blæse, blase (“firebrand, torch, lamp, flame”), from Proto-West Germanic *blasā, from Proto-Germanic *blasǭ (“torch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, be white”). Cognate with Low German blas (“burning candle, torch, fire”), Middle High German blas (“candle, torch, flame”). Compare Dutch bles (“blaze”), German Blesse (“blaze, mark on an animal's forehead”), Swedish bläs (“blaze”).

noun

1. A fire, especially a fast-burning fire producing a lot of flames and light.
2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat.
   to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun
3. The white or lighter-coloured markings on a horse's face.
   The palomino had a white blaze on its face.
4. (color) A high-visibility orange colour, typically used in warning signs and hunters' clothing.
   blaze:
5. A bursting out, or active display of any quality.
6. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark.
   The blaze is a longitudinal cut on trees at convenient intervals, made by cutting off the bark with an axe or hatchet: three blazes in a perpendicular line on the same tree indicating a legislative road, the single blaze, a settlement or neighbourhood road. 1855, Baynard Rush Hall, The New Purchase: Or, Early Years in the Far West - Page 71
7. (poker) A hand consisting of five face cards.

Etymology 2

From Middle English blasen, from Middle English blase (“torch”). See above.

verb

1. (intransitive) To be on fire, especially producing bright flames.
   The campfire blazed merrily.
2. (intransitive) To send forth or reflect a bright light; shine like a flame.
   And far and wide the icy summit blaze. 1793, William Wordsworth, Descriptive Sketches
   Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
3. (intransitive, poetic) To be conspicuous; shine brightly a brilliancy (of talents, deeds, etc.).
4. (transitive, rare) To set in a blaze; burn.
5. (transitive) To cause to shine forth; exhibit vividly; be resplendent with.
6. (transitive, only in the past participle) To mark with a white spot on the face (as a horse).
7. (transitive) To set a mark on (as a tree, usually by cutting off a piece of its bark).
   They had, just as we expected they would, cut Stuart's tracks, and had actually slept one night in one of his old camping-places, finding the trees "blazed" and marked "S.," as were all the trees at intervals along his line of exploration. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 105
8. (transitive) To indicate or mark out (a trail, especially through vegetation) by a series of blazes.
   The guide blazed his way through the undergrowth.
9. (transitive, figurative) To set a precedent for the taking-on of a challenge; lead by example.
   Darwin blazed a path for the rest of us.
10. (figurative) To be furiously angry; to speak or write in a rage.
    "I'll die before I let my grandad pay you that much money!" blazed the girl. 1929, Reginald Charles Barker, The Hair-trigger Brand, page 160
11. (slang) To smoke marijuana.
    I take a hit of that chronic, it got me stuck / But really what's amazing is how I keep blazing 2005, “We Major”, in Late Registration, performed by Kanye West ft. Really Doe & Nas
    Fam, I don't blaze / But I can bill up, so if I get bored / I might mm, bill it / At studio, I'm like mm, kill it 2015, Jme (lyrics and music), “Pulse 8” (track 1), in Integrity>, performed by Jme

Etymology 3

From Middle English blasen (“to blow”), from Old English *blǣsan, from Proto-West Germanic *blāsan, from Proto-Germanic *blēsaną (“to blow”). Related to English blast.

verb

1. (transitive) To blow, as from a trumpet.
2. (transitive) To publish; announce publicly.
3. (transitive) To disclose; bewray; defame.
4. (transitive, heraldry) To blazon.
   And nowe here is another crosse for your learning, and is thus blazed. The field is Argét, a playn crosse Gules, voyded of the first. 1576, Gerard LEGH, The Accedens of Armory. With an address to the Reader by R. Argoll. Woodcuts. MS. notes, page 28
   … yée thal blaze his Armes thus. A. beareth Argent, and Sable parted per Pale. 1597, John Bossewell, Works of Armorie: devided into 3 Bookes, intituled the Concordes of Armorie, the Armorie of Honor and of lotes and creastes, page 28
   Beinge thus blazed: Henzell On a ffeild Gules, beareth Three Acornes Slipped Or; Two and One. 1877, Henry Sydney Grazebrook, Collections for a genealogy of the noble families of Henzey, Tyttery, and Tyzack, page 26

noun

1. Publication; the act of spreading widely by report.