Blaze (bl&amac;z), n. [OE. blase, AS. blaese, 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.
⇒ 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.
© Webster 1913.
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.]
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.