blade
The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
Noun
- The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts.
- Sword. — The blade is straight, tapers gradually, is 32 9/16 inches long from shoulder to point, and is fullered on both sides, commencing 2 inches from the shoulder, to about 17 inches from the point, to a thickness of...
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(metonymic) A sword or knife.
- Paul: Give the Harkonnen a blade and let him stand forth. Shaddam IV: If Feyd wishes, he can meet you with my blade in his hand. - 1984, 2:08:29 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
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Ellipsis of razor blade.
- The flat functional end or piece of a propeller, oar, hockey stick, chisel, screwdriver, skate, etc.
- Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the...
- The narrow leaf of a grass or cereal.
- The thin, flat part of a plant leaf, attached to a stem (petiole).
Synonyms: lamina
- A flat bone, especially the shoulder blade.
- A cut of beef from near the shoulder blade (part of the chuck).
- The part of the tongue just behind the tip, used to make laminal consonants.
- A piece of prepared, sharp-edged stone, often flint, at least twice as long as it is wide; a long flake of ground-edge stone or knapped vitreous stone.
- A throw characterized by a tight parabolic trajectory due to a steep lateral attitude.
- The rudder, daggerboard, or centerboard of a vessel.
- A bulldozer or surface-grading machine with mechanically adjustable blade that is nominally perpendicular to the forward motion of the vehicle.
- A dashing young man.
- He saw a Turnkey in a trice / Unfetter a troublesome blade; - 1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page...
- But very often blust'ring blades / Are Jerry Sneaks at home. - 1832, The Universal Songster: Or, Museum of Mirth, page 189:
- Vice does not thrive here, because the young blades seek it elsewhere. - 1948, Jack Lait, Lee Mortimer, New York: Confidential!, Crown, published 1951, page 94:
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-der. Proto-Germanic *bladą Proto-West Germanic *blad Old English blæd Middle English bladder. Middle English blade English blade From Middle English blade, blad, from Old English blæd (“leaf”), from Proto-West Germanic *blad, from Proto-Germanic *bladą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥h₃-o-to-m, from *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”). Cognate with West Frisian bled, German Blatt, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish blad, Faroese and Icelandic blað, Irish bláth (“flower”), Welsh blodyn (“flower”), Tocharian A pält, Tocharian B pilta (“leaf”), Albanian fletë (“leaf”). Similar usage in German Sägeblatt (“saw blade”, literally “saw leaf”). Doublet of blat. More at blow.
Forms
Derived
axeblade bladebone bladebreaker blade connector bladejob blade jumper bladeless bladelet bladelike blade of grass blade-out bladepoint bladerunner blade server blade sharpener bladesmith bladesmithing bladewise bladework blisk blucket brush blade doctor blade fan blade
Verb
- To skate on rollerblades.
- Want to go blading with me later in the park?
- To furnish with a blade.
- To put forth or have a blade.
- As sweet a plant, as fair a flower, is faded / As ever in the Muses' garden bladed. - 1633, Phineas Fletcher, “Elisa”, in Piscatorie Eclogues and other Poetical Miscellanies:
- To stab with a blade
- The gang member got bladed in a fight.
- To cut a person (usually oneself) so as to provoke bleeding.
- Nowadays, blading happens on occasion in a televised match and more often on pay-per-view but the practice isn't used as much for several reasons, among them an increased awareness of the transmission of AIDS has made...