blast

A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).

Interjection

  1. Used to show anger or disappointment: damn
    • Now, where's my Labour membership card, so I can consider whether to tear it up? Blast, it's plastic... - 2025 February 19, Christian Wolmar, “Reeves talks of 'growth' but pays lip service to the railway”, in RAIL,...

Origin

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English blǣstan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blēstijan, from Proto-Germanic *blēstijaną. Possibly related to Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

Derived

damn and blast

Noun Entry 2

  1. A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).
    • And see where surly Winter passes off, / Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; / His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill. - a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […]...
    • Their warm, thick under covering of fine wool protects them from the coldest blasts. - 1915 April 5, Enos A. Mills, “Wild Mountain Sheep”, in The Rocky Mountain Wonderland, Houghton Mifflin, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 37:
  2. A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the tuyeres of a blast furnace, a person's mouth, etc.
  3. A hit of a recreational drug from a pipe.
  4. The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace.
    • Many tons of iron were melted at a blast.
    • Blast was produced by bellows worked by four 'blowers', three of whom worked at a time while the fourth stood ready to replace one of the others. - 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry,...
  5. The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
  6. An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.
    • arc blast
    • Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,[…]most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the...
    • Signalman Bridges was killed by the blast, as was fireman Nightall. Amazingly, driver Gimbert came round some 200 yards away, on the grass outside the Station Hotel where he had been flung. - 2022 January 12, Benedict...
  7. A verbal attack or punishment; a severe criticism or reprimand.
    • My manager gave me a blast yesterday for coming in late.
    • P. S.—I gave the P. O. Department a blast in the papers about sending misdirected letters of mine back to the writers for reshipment, and got a blast in return, through a New York daily, from the New York postmaster. -...
  8. An explosive charge for blasting.
    • 1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts Large blasts are often used.
  9. A loud, sudden sound.
    • One blast upon his bugle horn / Were worth a thousand men. - 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne...
    • the blast of triumph o'er thy grave - c. 1832, William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field:
    • Then the captain sung out: ¶ "Stand away!" and the cannon let off such a blast right before me that it made me deef with the noise and pretty near blind with the smoke, and I judged I was gone. - 1884 December 10, Mark...
  10. Unwanted noise from a microphone.
    • […] the microphone has been unostentatiously working out its own destiny here and abroad, mainly in America. Evolution seems to be most promising (in the elimination of "microphone blast" and background noises — common...
  11. A sudden pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.
    • By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 4:9:
    • Vertue preferd from fell deſtuctions blaſt, - c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and...
  12. A good time; an enjoyable moment.
    • We had a blast at the party last night.

Origin

From Middle English blast, blest, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāstu, from Proto-Germanic *blēstuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”), German blasen (“to blow”), Dutch blazen (“to blow”), Danish blæst (“wind”), French blaser (“to blunt, dull”). More at blow.

Forms

blasts

Derived

airblast antiblast arc blast ass-blast at one blast backblast beer blast Blastaway blast beat blast chilling blast 'em up blaster blast from the past blast furnace blast gear blast lamp blastment blastoff blast-off blast pad blast pen blastpipe blast pipe blast processing

Noun biology, cytology

  1. An immature or undifferentiated cell (e.g., lymphoblast, myeloblast).

Origin

From Ancient Greek βλαστός (blastós, “germ or sprout”).

Forms

blasts

Derived

blast cell blastocyte blastoma

Verb Entry 4

  1. To make an impression on, by making a loud blast or din.
    • Trumpeters, / With brazen din blast you the city's ear. - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  2. To make a loud noise.
  3. To play (music) very loudly out of a speaker.
    • Some kid is in his car blasting rap. You know, bass in the trunk and you can hear it 4 blocks away? I signal over to him and say "Hey, turn it up, I can't hear it." He turns around and says, "Shut Up Grandpa." - 2008...
  4. To shatter, as if by an explosion.
    • Although Maroczy favored solid, positional chess, there were times when he changed his style and blasted his opponents' defenses to bits. - 1951 July, Hans Kmoch, “Geza Maroczy 1870-1951”, in Chess Review:
  5. To open up a hole in, usually by means of a sudden and imprecise method (such as an explosion).
    • Blast right through it.
  6. To curse; to damn.
    • Blast it! Foiled again.
  7. To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles).
    • Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.
  8. To shoot; kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
    • A Ricketts and Stuart Holden one-two around the box then created a decent chance for an almost instant equaliser - but Welsh full-back Ricketts blasted over when a calmer finish could have been rewarded. - 2010 December...
  9. To shoot; to attack or shoot (someone or a place).
    • They showed up blasting.
    • That's when we decided to blast him.
    • And some kid comes blastin' around the corner but a cop puts him right away. He lays on the street holding his leg screaming something in Spanish, still breathing when I walked away. - 1973, Bruce Springsteen, “Lost in...
  10. To criticize or reprimand severely; to verbally discipline or punish.
    • My manager suddenly blasted me yesterday for being a little late to work for five days in a row, because I was never getting myself up on time.
    • John Cassavetes and New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael have never seen eye to eye on his films. According to the director, "She's blasted every one of my films except A Woman Under the Influence, which she couldn't...
    • Mark Pritchard, a Tory member of Parliament, blasted the show for treating a somber subject as “a matter of fun.” - 2014 March 27, Robin Marantz Henig, “Fictional Plotlines and Real Assisted Suicide”, in The Atlantic:

    Synonyms: admonish animadvert bash bawl out slash lash blame scorch blast berate berisp castigate censure charge chastise chew out chide condemn criticize denounce denunciate deprecate derogate dispraise

  11. To bring destruction or ruin on; to destroy.
    • Oh Portius, is there not some choſen Curſe, Some hidden Thunder in the Stores of Heav’n, Red with uncommon Wrath, to blaſt the Man Who owes his Greatneſs to his Country’s Ruin? - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison,...
    • Both Leo and myself rushed to her - she was stone dead - blasted into death by some mysterious electric agency or overwhelming will-force whereof the dread She had command. - 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider...
  12. To blight or wither.
    • A cold wind blasted the rose plants.

Forms

blasts blasting blasted

Derived

beblast blastable blast away blaster blasthole blasting gelatin blasting gelatine blastissimo blast off blastor blast out blast up blastworthy ghetto blaster ghettoblaster reblast sandblast shotblast shot blasting upblast

Verb biology, natural sciences

  1. To run a nucleotide sequence (for nucleic acids) or an amino acid sequence (for proteins) through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).
    • Blasting nucleotide sequences is not always that easy, because there is more ambiguity to the nucleotide sequence, and good hits have to have a 70% homology over the whole sequence to be reliable, compared to 25% with...

Origin

From BLAST (an acronym for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).

Forms

blasts blasting blasted BLAST