blade
[bleyd]
- the flat cutting part of a sword, knife, etc.
- a sword, rapier, or the like.
- a similar part, as of a mechanism, used for clearing, wiping, scraping, etc.: the blade of a windshield wiper; the blade of a bulldozer.
- the arm of a propeller or other similar rotary mechanism, as an electric fan or turbine.
- Botany.
- the leaf of a plant, especially of a grass or cereal.
- the broad part of a leaf, as distinguished from the stalk or petiole.
- the metal part of an ice skate that comes into contact with the ice.
- a thin, flat part of something, as of an oar or a bone: shoulder blade.
- Archaic. a dashing, swaggering, or jaunty young man: a gay blade from the nearby city.
- a swordsman.
- Phonetics.
- the foremost and most readily flexible portion of the tongue, including the tip and implying the upper and lower surfaces and edges.
- the upper surface of the tongue directly behind the tip, lying beneath the alveolar ridge when the tongue is in a resting position.
- the elongated hind part of a fowl's single comb.
Show More
Origin of blade
before 1000; Middle English; Old English blæd blade of grass; cognate with Dutch blad, Old Norse blath, German Blatt; akin to blow3
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for blade
Contemporary Examples
Despite a dizzying number of women coming forward against her husband, Camille Cosby refuses to sharpen her blade of vengeance.
The labels included a picture of a butterfly on a blade of grass.
Soon after 1pm, police were called to reports of a man with a blade in the street.
Every flower, every blade of grass, every tree had to be created in CG.
I remember being worried by his view of human nature, in A Blade of Light and Hard Rain Falling.
Historical Examples
So keen the blade, so soft the touch, the sleeper did not wake!
"You want to keep me here because you are afraid of me," cried the indignant Blade man.
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
Then he melted the dust and poured the hot liquid into a mould the shape of a blade.
Opera Stories from WagnerFlorence Akin
Lay it on a flat plate, and bruise it with the blade of a knife.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
Therein is the blade of the knife, the knife which falls and severs.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
blade
- the part of a sharp weapon, tool, etc, that forms the cutting edge
- (plural) Australian and NZ hand shears used for shearing sheep
- the thin flattish part of various tools, implements, etc, as of a propeller, turbine, etc
- the flattened expanded part of a leaf, sepal, or petal
- the long narrow leaf of a grass or related plant
- the striking surface of a bat, club, stick, or oar
- the metal runner on an ice skate
- archaeol a long thin flake of flint, possibly used as a tool
- the upper part of the tongue lying directly behind the tip
- archaic a dashing or swaggering young man
- short for shoulder blade
- a poetic word for a sword, swordsman
Show More
Word Origin
Old English blæd; related to Old Norse blath leaf, Old High German blat, Latin folium leaf
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for blade
n.
Old English blæd "a leaf," but also "a leaf-like part" (of spade, oar, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *bladaz (cf. Old Frisian bled "leaf," German blatt, Old Saxon, Danish, Dutch blad, Old Norse blað), from PIE *bhle-to-, suffixed form (past participle) of *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom," possibly identical with *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell" (see bole). Extended in Middle English to shoulders (c.1300) and swords (early 14c.). The modern use in reference to grass may be a Middle English revival, by influence of Old French bled "corn, wheat" (11c., perhaps from Germanic). The cognate in German, Blatt, is the general word for "leaf;" Laub is used collectively as "foliage." Old Norse blað was used of herbs and plants, lauf in reference to trees. This might have been the original distinction in Old English, too. Of men from 1590s; in later use often a reference to 18c. gallants, but the original exact sense, and thus signification, is uncertain.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
blade
[blād]
- The expanded part of a leaf or petal. Also called lamina See more at leaf.
- The leaf of grasses and similar plants.
- A stone tool consisting of a slender, sharp-edged, unserrated flake that is at least twice as long as it is wide. Blade tools were developed late in the stone tool tradition, after core and flake tools, and were probably used especially as knives.
Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.