Blaze (blāz), n. [OE. blase, AS.
blæse, blase; akin to OHG. blass whitish, G.
blass pale, MHG. blas torch, Icel. blys torch; perh.
fr. the same root as E. blast. Cf. Blast, Blush,
Blink.] 1. A stream of gas or vapor emitting
light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame. "To
heaven the blaze uprolled." Croly.
2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat; as,
to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon!
Milton.
3. A bursting out, or active display of any
quality; an outburst; a brilliant display. "Fierce blaze of
riot." "His blaze of wrath." Shak.
For what is glory but the blaze of fame?
Milton.
4. [Cf. D. bles; akin to E. blaze light.]
A white spot on the forehead of a horse.
5. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of
the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark.
Three blazes in a perpendicular line on the same tree
indicating a legislative road, the single blaze a settlement or
neighborhood road.
Carlton.
In a blaze, on fire; burning with a flame; filled
with, giving, or reflecting light; excited or exasperated. --
Like blazes, furiously; rapidly. [Low] "The
horses did along like blazes tear." Poem in Essex
dialect.
&fist; In low language in the U. S., blazes is frequently
used of something extreme or excessive, especially of something very bad;
as, blue as blazes. Neal.
Syn. -- Blaze, Flame. A blaze and a
flame are both produced by burning gas. In blaze the idea of
light rapidly evolved is prominent, with or without heat; as, the
blaze of the sun or of a meteor. Flame includes a stronger
notion of heat; as, he perished in the flames.
Blaze, v. i. [imp. & p. p.
Blazed (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Blazing.]
1. To shine with flame; to glow with flame; as, the
fire blazes.
2. To send forth or reflect glowing or brilliant
light; to show a blaze.
And far and wide the icy summit blazed.
Wordsworth.
3. To be resplendent. Macaulay.
To blaze away, to discharge a firearm, or to
continue firing; -- said esp. of a number of persons, as a line of
soldiers. Also used (fig.) of speech or action. [Colloq.]
Blaze, v. t. 1. To mark
(a tree) by chipping off a piece of the bark.
I found my way by the blazed trees.
Hoffman.
2. To designate by blazing; to mark out, as by
blazed trees; as, to blaze a line or path.
Champollion died in 1832, having done little more than
blaze out the road to be traveled by others.
Nott.
Blaze, v. t. [OE. blasen to blow;
perh. confused with blast and blaze a flame, OE.
blase. Cf. Blaze, v. i., and see
Blast.] 1. To make public far and wide; to make
known; to render conspicuous.
On charitable lists he blazed his name.
Pollok.
To blaze those virtues which the good would hide.
Pope.
2. (Her.) To blazon. [Obs.]
Peacham.
