His stede was black as rauen, thei kald his name Feraunt
He rode vnto the hauen, and said he wild to Gaunt.
R. Brunne, p. 295.
Withoute the Cristen gan crie, allas! R. is taken,
Tho Normans were sorie, of contenance gan blaken.
Id. p. 183.

Be as may be, I wol hire not accusen;
But on his bak this sherte he wered al naked,
Til that his flesh was for the venim blaked.

Chaucer. The Monkes Tale, v. 14,185.

And than I curse also the night,
With all the will of my courage,
And saie, away thou blacke image,
Whiche of thy darke cloudie face,
Makest all the worldes light deface.-Gower. Con. A. b.iv.

Then yf the soore be waxed blackish, and is not growen abrode in the skinne, let the preast make him clene for it is but a skirfe.-Bible, 1551. Lev. c. 13.

The man of Indie that we speke of ca by no lerning know ye course of the sonne whereby he should pcyue the cause of his blaknes, but if it be by astronomy, which cōning who can lerne that nothing will beliue that semeth to hym selfe impossible.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 126.

They haue their teeth blacked both men and women, for they say a dogge hath his teeth white, therefore they will blacke theirs.-Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. p. 262.

The Bramas which be of the kings countrey (for the king is a Brama) haue their legs or bellies, or some part of their body, as they thinke good themselues, made black with certaine things which they haue: they vse to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kinde of anile or blacking, which doth continue alwayes.-Id. Ib.

The Romans understanding of his [Tullus] death, shewed no other honour or malice, saving that they granted the ladies their request they made: that they might mourn ten moneths for him, and that was the full time they used to wear blacks for the death of their fathers, brethren, or Husbands, according to Numa Pompilius order.

North. Plutarch, p. 201. Shrunk nearer earth, all blacken'd now and brown, In mask of weeping clouds appears the moon. Drummond. The Shadow of the Judgment.

Beyond the river Ganges, in that quarter and climate which lyeth southward, the people are caught with the sunne, and begin to be blackish: but yet not all out so sunburnt and black indeed as the Moores and Ethiopians. Holland. Plinie, b. vi. c. 19.

Lastly stood warre in glittering arms yclad,
With visage grim, sterne looks, and blackely hewed.
Mirrour for Magistrates. Sackville's Induction.
They're darker now than blackness; none can know
Them by the face, as through the streets they go :
For now their skin doth cleave unto their bone,
And wither'd is like to dry wood grown.

Donne. Lamentations of Jeremy, c. 4. v. 8. And there was a Grecian woman, who having brought forth a black infant, and being troubled therefore, and judicially accused for adultery, as if she had been conceived by a Mack-moor; shee pleaded and was found to be her selfe descended from an Aethiopian, in the fourth degree removed. Holland. Plutarch, p. 457.

If you see him [a Dutchman] fat, he hath been rooting in a cabbage-ground, and that bladdered him.

Feltham. Character of the Low Countries. What are they when they stand upon the highest pinacle of worldly dignities, but bladders swelled up with the breath of popular rout, nothings set a-strut. Hopkins. Works, p. 32. Stumbling from thought to thought, falls headlong down Into doubt's boundless sea, where, like to drown, Books bear him up a while, and make him try To swim with bladders of philosophy.

Rochester. Sat. against Mankind. They affect greatness in all they write, but it is a bladdered greatness, like that of the vain man whom Seneca describes; an ill habit of body, full of humours, and swelled with dropsy. Dryden. Discourse on Epick Poetry. Thus sportive boys, around some bason's brim, Behold the pipe-drawn bladders circling swim. Churchill. The Rosciad.

For it is a kinde of grasse with a stalke, as big as a great wheaten reed, which hath a blade, issuing from the top of it, on which, though the cattle feed, yet it groweth every day higher, untill the top be too high for an oxe to reach. Sir F. Drake Revived, p. 55. As sweet a plant, as fair a flower is faded As ever in the Muses garden bladed.

P. Fletcher. Eliza, an Elegy. Lys. Helen, to you our mindes we will vnfold, To morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold Her siluer visage, in the watry glasse, Decking with liquid pearle the bladed grasse, (A time that louers flights doth still conceale) Through Athen's gates haue we deuis'd to steale.

Shakespeare. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i. sc. 1. Besides, what is she else, but a foul woosy marsh, And that she calls her grass, so blady is, and harsh, As cuts the cattel's mouths, constrain'd thereon to feed. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 25. Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine; And from the bladed field the fearful hare Limps, awkward. Thomson. Summer.

Dr. Swift somewhere says, that he who could make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, was a greater benefactor to the human race than all the politicians that ever existed.-Burke. On Mr. Fox's East India Bill.

Say, is the Persian carpet, than the field's
Or meadow's mantle gay, more richly wov'n;
Or softer to the votaries of ease

Than bladed grass, perfum'd with dew-dropt flow'rs?
Warton. The Enthusiast.

185

BLADE, v. Junius thinks that Chaucer, BLADE, n. when he wrote platte for blade (sc.) of a sword (Squieres Tale, v. 176) intimated his opinion of the origin of the word. Plat, Mr. Tyrwhitt says, is the Fr. plat, flat; and this Caseneuve deduces from the Gr. AaTos, enlarged, expanded. Skinner prefers the A. S. Blad, folium, because it (the blade of a sword, lamina ensis) lata est instar folii. Blade is applied (met.) toAny one who pretends to the sharpness, brightness of a sword blade.

Ay by his belt he bare a long pavade,

And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.
Chaucer. The Reves Tale, v. 3928.
As she had said her damsells might perceue,
Her with these wordes fal pearced on a sword;
The blade embrued and hands besprent with gore.
Surrey. Virgile. Enæis, b. iv.
Thus speaking, in the midst thereof she left, and there
withal

With brest on piercing sword her ladies saw where she did fall:

The blade in fomy bloud, and hands abroad with sprawling throwne. Phaer. Eneis, Ib.

As when an arming sword of proofe is made,
Both steele and iron must be tempred well:
(For iron gives the strength unto the blade,
And steele, in edge doth cause it to excell)
As each good blade-smith by his art can tell.
Mir. for Mag. Newton to the Reader,
Atrides lance did gore
Pylemen's shoulder, in the blayd.

Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. v.
With dauntless hardihood,
And brandish'd blade rush on him, break his glass,
And shed the luscious liquor on the ground,
But seise his wand.
Millon. Comus.

Oct. 21, 1671. Leaving Euston, I lodged this night at New-market, where I found the jolly blades raceing, dancing, feasting, and revelling, more resembling a luxurious and abandon'd rout, than a Christian court.

Evelyn. Memoirs, vol. i.

Cecyll, on the other side, play'd a smooth edge upon Ralegh throughout the trial; his blade seemed ever anointed

with the balsam of compliment or apology, whereby he gave

were as

deep and fatal as the other.-Öldys. Life of Ralegh.

So fares it with those merry blades,
That frisk it under Pindus' shades.

In noble song, and lofty odes,

They tread on stars, and talk with gods.-Prior. A Simile.
Vanbruin dy'd his son, we're told,

Succeeded to his father's gold.
Flush'd with his wealth, the thoughtless blade,
Despis'd frugality, and trade.-Cotton. Death & the Rake.
Again our trenchant blades aloft we heave,
Dauntless again the sever'd bodies cleave,

And triumph in the deed.-Cambridge. Scribleriad, b. ii.

BLAIN. A. S. Blegene; Dut. Bleyne. Junius and Skinner say, perhaps from the A. S. Blawan, to blow. The latter adds, a blain, is—

A distention, tumor, or inflation of the skin.

For yf his fynger dooe but ake of an hoate blaine, a greate manye mennes mouthes blowyng out his prayse, wyll scantly doe him among them all, half so muche ease, as to haue one boie blow vpon his finger.

Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1224.

fame, character, or reputation; to find fault with; to pass an unfavourable judgment upon; to rebuke, to chide, to censure, to reprimand, to reprehend.

The phrase "is to blame," is a remnant of old English idiom. Is to, and is to be, are all we now have to supply the place of the Latin future participles, in rus and dus. Culpaturus and culpandus, would by Chaucer have been translated without distinction, is to blame. Spernendus est, he renders, it is to despise.

Tho ys moder y slaw was, me blamede hym ther fore.
R. Gloucester, p. 68.
Roberd thou ert blame, thou did ageyn resoun,
Certes thou has don schame tille alle that bere coroun.
R. Brunne, p. 173.
"Damasele," he seyde tho, "thy louerd ssal abbe an name
Vor hym, & vor hys eyrs, vayr wythout blame.
R. Gloucester, p. 432.
Ac neyther is al blameles, the bisshop ne the chapeleyn
For ignorantia non excusat. as ich have herd in bookes.
Piers Plouhman, p. 221.

And thei camen nygh and reisiden hym and seiden: comaundour we perischen, and he roos and blamede the wynd and the tempest of the watir, and it ceesside and pesiblete was maad.-Wiclif. Luke, c. 8.

This blamyng that is maad of manye, suffisith to him that is such oon.-Id. 2 Corynth. c. 2.

Men schulen be louynge hemsilff, coueitouse, high of berynge, proude, blasfemeris; not obedient to fadir and modir, unkynde, cursid withouten affeccioun, withouten pees, false blameris.-Id. Tyte, c. 3.

Immortal God, thou savedst Susanne
Fro false blame, and thou merciful mayde,
Mary I mene, doughter to seint Anne,
My socour be, or elles shall I die.

Chaucer. The Man of Lawes Tale, v. 5059. He that is irous and wroth, as sayth Senek, he may not spike but blameful thinges, and with his vicious wordes he stirreth other folk to anger and to ire. Id. The Tale of Melibeus.

This maie a kynge well vnderstonde,
Knighthode mite betake on honde
Whan that it stont vpon the nede,
He shall no rightfull cause drede
No more of warre than of pees,

If he wyll stonde blameless.-Gower. Con, A. b. vii.

Now if we should for this matter breake the rule of charitie, and euery man hate his neighbour that would not thinke as he doth, then were we greatly to blame and in jeoperdie of condemnation.-Frith. Workes, p. 150.

If thys is to be feared in such as shew thys prepostorous zeale agaynste that whiche is blameworthy, what shall we thinke of those that vnder the pretence of zeale deface the minister, and the word that he preacheth, for doing that which is lawfull, and the whiche of duetie he ought to do. Whitgift. Defence, p. 260. For throughout the whole world, in every place, at all times, and in all mens mouths, fortune alone is sought unto and called upon: she only is named and in request; shee alone is blamed, accused, and endited.

Holland. Plinie, b. ii. c. 12.

Nathlesse, he shortly shall againe be tryde,
And fairely quite him of th' imputed blame,
Else be ye sure, he dearely shall abide,
Or make you good amendment for the same.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 1.

If he had not freedom of will to determine himself towards good and evil, as he pleased, he must then be under a fatal necessity of doing whatsoever he should happen to do; and then as he could give no proof of his temper and inclination, so there could be no such thing as acceptableness to God when he did well, nor blamableness when he did otherwise. Goodman. Winter Evening Conference, p. 3.

Neither can I see how it should be blamelesse, objecting such fancies and imaginations as it doth; which to withstand and resist were not blamable, but rather to give place and follow them.-Holland. Plutarch, p. 886.

For nature hath her zodiac also, keeps her great annual circuit over human things, as truly as the sun and planets in the firmament; hath her anomalies, hath her obliquities in assentions and declinations, accesses and recesses, as blamelessly as they in heaven.-Milton. Tetrachordon.

There is another [difficulty] remaining in the thing itself, which is concerning the blamelessness, or being void of offence.-Goodwin. Of Gospel Holiness, b. i. c. 4.

To this we owe much of the innocency, and in some respects blamelessness, cf our lives, that we have not been a scandal to the Gospel, a shame to the good, and a scorn to the bad.-Hopkins. Works, p. 292..

This Robert Grosted whose learning (in Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, and other languages,] ioined with vertue, and good life, wan to him perpetuall commendation, was a manifest blamer of the Pope, and king.-Stowe. Hen. III. an. 1253.

It is hard to say how far saints may fall, or how often into offence and blameworthiness.

Goodwin. Gospel of Holiness, b. i. c. 4.

But if we receive the grace of God in vain, and take no care to perform the condition, and do neglect to implore the grace and assistance of God's H. Spirit to that purpose, we have none to blame but ourselves.-Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 46.

It is the excess, not the thing itself, that is blameable.
Prior. Preface to Solomon.
Not simple Nature's unaffected sons,
The blameless Indians, round the forest-cheer,
In sunny lawn or shady covert set,
Hold more unspotted converse.

Thomson. To the Memory of Lord Talbot.
We give to chance, blind chance, ourselves as blind,
The glory of thy work; which yet appears
Perfect and unimpeachable of blame,
Challenging human scrutiny, and prov'd
Then skilful most when most severely judg'd.
Cowper. Task, b. v.

I therefore took occasion to observe, that the world in
general began to be blameably indifferent as to doctrinal
matters, and followed human speculations too much.
Goldsmith. Vicar of Wakefield, c. 14.
Medon, live
To share that glory. Thee to perish here,
No law, no oracle enjoins. To die,
Uncall'd, is blameful.

Glover. Leonidas, b. x.
Thrice happy land! though freezing on the verge
Of arctic skies; yet, blameless still of arts
That polish to deprave, each softer clime.

Mallet. Amyntor & Theodora, c. 1. The disturbance and fear, which often follow upon a man's having done an injury, arise from a sense of his being blameworthy; otherwise there would, in many cases, be no ground of disturbance, nor any reason to fear resentment or shame. Butler. Analogy of Religion, pt. i. c. 3.

A wise man may frequently neglect praise, even when he has best deserved it; but, in all matters of serious consequence, he will most carefully endeavour so to regulate his conduct as to avoid, not only blameworthyness, but, as much as possible, every probable imputation of blame. Smith. Moral Sentiments, pt. iii. c. 2. BLANCH, v. Fr. Blanc; It. Bianco; BLA'NCHER. Sp. Blanco; A. S. Blican; Ger. Blicken, blinken, to shine, to glitter, to twinkle or blink; lucere, coruscare, micare; and by consequence, dealbare, to whiten; quia (album) præ reliquis coloribus copiosissimam lucem reflectit, (Skinner.)

Blanch, blench, and blink, are probably the same word differently written and applied. See also BLEACH.

To blanch; to brighten, to whiten, (lucescere, dealbare,) and thus-To give a fair appearance, a fair face to any thing; and also as, to blench or blink, (qv.)

To avoid or cause to avoid, to evade, escape, or shun, to shrink, or start away from, to startle. Blancher, cited from Sidney, is used exactly as blencher in Beaum. and Fletch.

Wallnuttes, if they be blanched, are supposed to be good for the stomake.-Sir. T. Elyot. Castel of Helth, b. ii. c. 14.

And so many days were spent, and so many ways used, while Zelmane was like one that stood in a tree waiting a good occasion to shoot; and Gynecia a blancher, which kept the dearest deer from her.-Sidney. Arcadia, b. i.

Ah! now I see the sweetest dawn,

Thrice welcome to my longing sight! Hail, divine beauty! heavenly light! I see thee through yon cloud of lawn Appear; and, as thy star does glide Blanching with rays the east on every side. Sherburne. Sun Rise.

To those choice waters, I most fitly may compare, Wherewith nice women use to blanch their beauties rare. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 21. Hector, you know, applause

Of humour hath beene farre from me, nor fits it, or in warre Or in affaires of court, a man, imploid in publick care,

powre.

To blanch things further than their truth, or flatter any Chapman. Homer. Iliad, b. xii. The judges of that time thought it was a dangerous thing to admit Ifs and Ands to qualifie the words of treason, whereby every man might expresse his malice and blanch his danger.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 134.

Now, Sir, concerning your [Milton's] travels, wherein I may challenge a little more privilege of discourse with you. I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way.

Reliquia Wottonianæ, p. 343.

This Spanish inquisition is
A trappe, so slylie sett;
As into it wise, godly, rich,

By blanchers bace as [are] fett.

Warner. Albion's England, b. ix. Men of wit and confidence will always make a shift to say something for any thing: and some way or other blanch over the blackest and most absurd things in the world. Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 30. Then the sleek brightening lock, from hand to hand, Renews its circling course: this feels the card; That, in the comb, admires its growing length; This, blanch'd, emerges from the oily wave; And that, the amber tint, or ruby, drinks.

Dyer. The Fleece, b. ii. Lat. Blandus, soothing. Of uncertain etymology. Sir T. More and Hall write blandiment.

Soothing, mild, gentle,

BLAZE, v. A. S. Blæsan, to blow. Past BLAZE, n. part. Blazed, blas'd, blast; BLA'ZING, n. Ger. Blazen; Dut. Blæesen; BLA'ZER. Suscitare ignem flatu, (Kilian.) BLA'SURE. To raise a flame by blowing. More probably to emit a flame, like a blast. To rush, issue, send forth or emit, like a blast; Id. Valentinian, Act iv. sc. 1. i. e. suddenly, widely, rapidly.

To spread or disperse, to divulge, to publish, to proclaim: also to display or set forth conspicuously, ostentatiously. And also restricted to the heraldic blazonry of arms.

Mich. I am no blaster of a ladies beauty,
Nor bold intruder on her special favours,
I know how tender reputation is,

And with what guards it ought to be preserv'd, lady.
Beaum. & Fletch. Rule a Wife, Act i. sc. 1.

Empe. Hang, ye rascals,

Ye blasters of my youth, if she be gone, "Twere better ye had been your father's camels.

In the morne and liquid dew of youth,
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act i. sc. 3.

But it may be noted, that the blossoms do not forthwith discover the blast; an old experienced countryman having once given me notice of a blasty noon, and within a day or two shewing the proof upon the cherry-blossoms then flagging, but not much altering their colour till two days more were past.-Boyle. Works, vol. iii. p. 154.

I can nat tell you what was this knyghtes name, nor of fusses sable, a border sable. what countre, but the blasure of his armes was goules, two Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 281. So spake the Father; and, unfoulding bright Toward the right hand his glorie, on Blaz'd forth unclouded Deitie the Son.

a man that blazed them before are more offensive.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. x. And as it seemeth that the reverberation of a light doth more offence unto the feeble eyes; even so those reproches which are retorted and sent back again by the truth, upon Holland. Plutarch, p. 197. For when they hear so much evil blazed abroad in the world, and few or none escape without having some foul blot rubb'd upon him, and infamous crime reported of him, whether truly or falsly, they think that sin and wickedness commit that which they hear is so common.

is no such strange and so embolden themselves to Hopkins. Works, p. 209.

A traine of powder was made, and set on fire, which gave to the blessed martyr of God, a blaise, and scorched his left hand and that side of his face, but neither kindled the wood nor yet the coales.-Knox. Hist. of the Reform. p. 6.

Vtterers of secrets he from thence debard,
Babblers of folly, and blazers of crime.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 9.
Large shells of nuts their covering helmet yield,
And o'er the region, with reflected rays,
Tall groves of needle for their lances blaze,
Dreadful in arms the marching mice appear.

Parnell. Battle of the Frogs and Mice, b. ii. Others are of opinion that it foretells battell and bloodshed, and believe it of the same prognostication as the tail of a blazing star.-Spectator. No. 127.

But when their chains were cast aside,
See the glad scene unfolding wide,
Clap the glad wing, and tower away,
And mingle with the blaze of day.

Parnell. A Night Piece on Death. Near, and more near, the swimming radiance roll'd; Along the mountains stream the lingering fires, Sublime the groves of Ida blaze with gold,

And all the heaven resounds with louder lyres.
Beattie. The Judgment of Paris.

If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant.-Johnson. Life of Pope.

From Blaze. Fr. Blasonner, to blaze arms, (Cotgrave.) As to blaze, so to blazon is divulge, to publish, to proclaim. Also to display To spread or disperse, to or set forth conspicuously, ostentatiously.

BLA'ZON, n.
BLA'ZON, v.
BLA'ZONER.
BLA'ZONRY.

I wot not what I say yet, although I know what I would saie: for I would neuer blasen loue with my tongue, without I were sore hurt in mine vnderstanding.

But now friend Cornelius, sith I have blasened his vaunt, hearken his vertue and worthinesse.-Golden Boke, Let. 2. Well, if it were folie to bewaile things which are vnpossible to be recouered, sith Had I wist doth seldome serue as a blason of good understanding.

Gascoigne. Advertisement to the Reader, Indeed a silence does that tomb befit, Where is no herald left to blazon it.

Donne. Elegies upon the Authour. The hag lay long revolving what might be, The blest event of such an embassy: Then blazons in dread smile her hideous form; So lightning gilds the unrelenting storm.

Garth. The Dispensary, c. 2. His whole mind was blazoned over with a variety of glittering images; coronets, escutcheons, &c.

Goldsmith. Citizen of the World, Let. 104.

My honourable friend has not brought down a spirited imp of chivalry to win the first achievement and blazon of arms on his milk-white shield in a field listed against him. Burke. On the Duration of Parliament.

These historians, recorders, and blazoners of virtues and arms, differ wholly from that other description of historians, who never assign any act of politicians to a good motive.-Id. A Letter to a Noble Lord.

BLE. Able, ible; Lat. Bilis, from the Goth. Abal, strength, power, force. The Lat. termination in Bilis (with few exceptions) was used passively; (e. g.) Arable, that may be ered or ploughed; Audible, that may be heard; and the contraction into ile, docile, that may be taught: and was thus contradistinguished from the terminations, ive and ic, which were used actively; (e.g.) Coercive, that can or may coerce; Didactic, that can or may teach. In the decay of the Lat. language, adjectives terminating in Bilis, used with an active signification, were introduced in great numbers; and many transferred into our own English: thus, Comfortable, that can or may, that does comfort; Conducible, that can or may, that does, conduce. Sensible, we use, to denote-full of sense ;-which can feel, which may be felt; he is a sensible man; very sensible of the cold; and of any sensible change of the weather. Many words of this description are considered by Tooke to have been received by us from French words in Ble, which were taken corruptly from Italian words in Vole. As It. Confortevole; Fr. Comfortable: It. Capevole; Fr. Capable. The abuse seems too firmly established, and too widely spread, to admit of any but a very partial remedy. See Ic, IVE.

When shepherds pipe on oaten strawes,

And merrie larkes are ploughmans clockes; When turtles tread, and rookes and dawes, And maidens bleach their summer smockes.

Shakespeare. Loue's Labour Lost, Act v. sc. 2. After that, they be spred abroad and displaied open to the sunne, and left without dores to take all weathers both day and night, and to bee bleached, untill they be drie and white. Holland. Plinie, b. xvi. c. 24. There runneth likewise out of vines a certaine gum, which is passing good for the bleach, scabs, and scals in little children.-Id. Ib. b. xiii. c. 11.

Virgil, to give this thought likewise a cloathing of poetry, describes some spirits as bleaching in the winds. Tatler. No. 154. Immortal liberty, whose look sublime, Hath bleach'd the tyrant's cheek in every varying clime. Smollett. Ode to Independence." In the price of linen we must add the wages of the flaxdresser, of the spinner, of the weaver, of the bleacher, &c. together with the profits of their respective employers. Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. i. c. 6. On the side of the great bleachery are the public walls. Pennant.

BLEAT, v. A. S. Blætan; Dut. Blaten; BLEAT, n. Ger. Bleken; It. Belare; Fr. BLE/ATER. Beler; Sp. Balar; Lat. Balare. BLE'ATING, n. Bleat is the cry of the sheep. quotation below from Chapman.

See BA, and the

Thro' which, by strength of hand, Alcides drew Chain'd Cerberus, who lagg'd and restive grew, With his blear'd eyes our brighter day to view.

Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calue cu Bulluc sterteth

Tate and Stonestreet. Ovid. Met. b. vii.

Bucke uerteth

Is 't not a pity now, that tickling rheums
Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight
Of oracles like these?
Cowper. Task, b. iii,

Murie sing cuccu.

Ancient Songs. Ritson.

the shepe i myne eares, and the noyse of the oxe whiche And Samuel answered: what meaneth the the bleatinge of I heare.-Bible, 1551. 1 Sam. c. 15.

He blessede hem wt hus bulles, & blerede hure eye.
Piers Ploukman, p. 4. (Grose.)

Phebus, (quod he) for all thy worthinesse
For all thy beautee, and all thy gentillenesse,
For all thy song, and all thy minstralcie,
For all thy waiting blered is thin eye,
With on of litel reputation.

And were not the angels a great deal better employed in the beholding the worth of their Creatour, than to diminish their own happinesse, by attending those, whom nothing can make happie? looking on this troubled passing stream of the perishing generations of men, to as little purpose Chaucer. The Manciples Tale, v. 17,198. almost, as idle boys do on dancing blebs and bubbles in the Entising dames my patience still did proue, water.-More. Song of the Soul, Conclusion. And blearde mine eyes, till I became so blind That seing not what furie brought mee foorth,

I followed most (alwayes) that least was worth.

Set in my ship, mine eare reacht, where we rod
The bellowing of oxen, and the bleate
Of fleecie sheepe. Chapman. Homer. Odysses, b. xii.
Then suddenly was heard along the main
To low the ox, to bleat the woolly train.-Pope. Ib.

BLEE. A. S. Bleoh, from Blewan, efflorescere, to blow, to bloom. In Ritson's Ancient Songs, Gascoigne. The Fruite of Fetters. p. 27, "Hire bleo blykyeth so bright." Applied generally to

The complexion, hue, colour.

In cold stiff soils the bleaters oft complain Of gouty ails, by shepherds term'd the halt: Those let the neighbouring fold or ready crook Detain; and pour into their cloven feet Corrosive drugs. Dyer. The Fleece, b. i. BLEB. Skinner says, from the Ger. Blaen, tumescere, turgescere, to swell. See BLUB. "A blister; also a bubble in the water. North."

Mine herte oppressed is so wonderfully,
Onely for him which is so bright of blee,
Alas I trowe I shal him neuer see.

Chaucer. Lamentations of Mary Magdalen.
There beth rosis of red ble,
And lilie likful for to se.

Uncertaine Auctors. Hickes, vol. i. p. 230. Before him came a dwarffe full lowe,

That waited on his knee,
And at his backe five heads he bore,

Forth then hyed our king, I wisse,
And an angry man was hee;
And soone he found queene Elinore,
That bride so bright of blee.

Id. Ib.

BLEED. A. S. Blæd-an. Skinner preBLEEDING.fers the Dut. Blosen, rubescere; a colore, scilicet: to grow red; to blush, or bloom. To pour forth, to emit; to draw forth, blood: (met.) to feel the pains or agonies of bleeding. See BLOOD.

Sire, he wold say, an emperour mote nede
Be vertuous, and haten tyrannie.
For which he made him in a bathe to blede
On bothe his armes till he muste die.

Of al that me him bilimede. hii ne bledde nozt, me sede.
R. Gloucester, p. 560.
[Belimbed, cut off the limbs.]
Ich circumsysede myne sone. and al so for hus sake
My self and my meyne. and alle that maule [male] were
Bledden blod for that lordes love.-Piers Plouhman, p.318.

Whereupon he [Cato] called for all his men, one after another, and very angerly asked them his sword, and gave one of them such a blow on his face, that his nose fell a bleeding, and his hand was all bloody withall.

North. Plutarch, p. 660.

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. Pope. Essay on Man, Epist. 1. Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyre.-Cowper. Task, b. v. BLE/MISH, v. BLE/MISH, n. BLE/MISHLESS. BLEMISHMENT. BLEMISHING, n. or purity. And hence

To taint, to tarnish, to sully; to deform, to disfigure.

To blemish, is to affix some blame, some cause of blame; some stain, some spot, which sullies, taints or tarnishes the original soundness, fairness,

And thus it suffiseth not onley, that they reuerence ne auaile me naught, but if thou of thy fre will, rather be blemished with mine offencion.-Chaucer. Boecius, b. i.

But whenne he [Chas. IX.] came to mennes astate he then was ryght sorry, and wolde saye full often, to his famyliers, a prince is greatly blemysshed whenne he lakketh conynge of lecture.-Fabyan, an. 1483.

Full many lords, and many knights her loued,
Yet she to none of them her liking lent,
Ne euer was with fond affection moued,
But rul'd her thoughts with goodly gouernement,
For dread of blame, and honours blemishment.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 2.
A life in all so blemishlesse, that we
Enoch's return may sooner hope, than he
Should be outshin'd by any.-Feltham. Lusoria, c. 37.

The earl thinking there might remain some grudge of the last years' falling out, caused Sir Walter Ralegh and Sir Francis Vere to shake hands; "which we did both," says

Oldys. Life of Ralegh.

The reliefs of an envious man are those little blemishes and imperfections that discover themselves in an illustrious character.-Spectator, No. 19.

They have possessed other beauties, which were conformable to just criticism; and the force of these beauties has been able to overpower censure, and give the mind a satisfaction superior to the disgust arising from the blemishes. Hume, pt. i. Ess. 23. See to BLANCH, and to BLINK.

BLENCH, v. BLENCH, n. BLE'NCHER. To blank (qv.)-to avoid, or BLE'NCHING. cause to avoid, to evade, to escape, to elude, to shun, to start or shrink from, to startle. And, by Gower, to blink.