blast
UK /blɑːst/ · US /blæst/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
- noun A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle).
- noun 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.
- noun A hit of a recreational drug from a pipe.
- noun 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.”
- noun 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.
- noun An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc. “arc blast”
- noun (baseball) A direct and fast swing of a bat; a home run.
- noun A verbal attack or punishment; a severe criticism or reprimand. “My manager gave me a blast yesterday for coming in late.”
- verb (transitive) To make an impression on, by making a loud blast or din.
- verb (intransitive) To make a loud noise.
- verb (transitive, informal) To play (music) very loudly out of a speaker.
- verb (transitive) To shatter, as if by an explosion.
- verb (transitive) To open up a hole in, usually by means of a sudden and imprecise method (such as an explosion). “Blast right through it.”
- verb (transitive) To curse; to damn. “Blast it! Foiled again.”
- verb (transitive, science fiction) To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles). “Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.”
- verb (soccer) To shoot; kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
- interjection (chiefly UK, informal, mildly blasphemous) Used to show anger or disappointment: damn
- noun (cytology) An immature or undifferentiated cell (e.g., lymphoblast, myeloblast).
- verb (biology, informal, transitive) To run a nucleotide sequence (for nucleic acids) or an amino acid sequence (for proteins) through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).
- proper noun (biology) An algorithm which compares similarities between sequences of nucleotides in nucleic acids or of amino acids in proteins.
Synonyms
admonish animadvert bash bawl out tilt cannonade slash lash blame scorch berate berisp castigate censure charge chastise chew out chide condemn criticize bang clap eruption bam gust blow good time fire attack flak
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English blast, 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.
Inherited from Middle English blasten, 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”).
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βλᾰστός (blăstós, “germ or sprout”).
From BLAST (“Basic Local Alignment Search Tool”, acronym).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A violent gust of wind.
- noun A forcible stream of air from an orifice, as from a bellows, the mouth, etc. Hence: The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace; as, to melt so many tons of iron at a blast.
- verb To injure, as by a noxious wind; to cause to wither; to stop or check the growth of, and prevent from fruit-bearing, by some pernicious influence; to blight; to shrivel.
- verb Hence, to affect with some sudden violence, plague, calamity, or blighting influence, which destroys or causes to fail; to visit with a curse; to curse; to ruin; as, to blast pride, hopes, or character.
Etymology [AS. bl a puff of wind, a blowing; akin to Icel. blastr, OHG. blast, and fr. a verb akin to Icel. blasa to blow, OHG. blâsan, Goth. bl (in comp.); all prob. from the same root as E. blow. See Blow to eject air.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “blast”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details