DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Bless v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blessed or Blest; p. pr. & vb. n. Blessing.]
 1. To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
    And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.   --Gen. ii. 3.
 2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
 The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest;
 It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.   --Shak.
    It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee.   --1 Chron. xvii. 27 (R. V. )
 3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
    Bless them which persecute you.   --Rom. xii. 14.
 4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
    Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them.   --Luke ix. 16.
 5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self). [Archaic]
 6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
 7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
    Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.   --Ps. ciii. 1.
 8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
    The nations shall bless themselves in him.   --Jer. iv. 3.
 9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.]
    And burning blades about their heads do bless.   --Spenser.
    Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest.   --Fairfax.
 Note: ☞ This is an old sense of the word, supposed by Johnson, Nares, and others, to have been derived from the old rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all parts of it. “In drawing [their bow] some fetch such a compass as though they would turn about and bless all the field.”
 Bless me! Bless us! an exclamation of surprise. --Milton.
 To bless from, to secure, defend, or preserve from. “Bless me from marrying a usurer.”  --Shak.
    To bless the doors from nightly harm.   --Milton.
 -- To bless with, To be blessed with, to favor or endow with; to be favored or endowed with; as, God blesses us with health; we are blessed with happiness.
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