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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Bless \Bless\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Blessed}or {Blest}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Blessing}.] [OE. blessien, bletsen, AS. bletsian, bledsian, bloedsian, fr. bl?d blood; prob. originally to consecrate by sprinkling with blood. See {Blood}.]
1. To make or pronounce holy; to consecrate
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it. --Gen. ii. 3.
2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. --Shak.
It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee. --1 Chron. xvii. 27 (R. V. )
3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
Bless them which persecute you. --Rom. xii. 14.
4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them. --Luke ix. 16.
5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self). [Archaic] --Holinshed.
6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. --Ps. ciii. 1.
8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
The nations shall bless themselves in him. --Jer. iv. 3.
9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.]
And burning blades about their heads do bless. --Spenser.
Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest. --Fairfax.
Note: This is an old sense of the word, supposed by Johnson, Nares, and others, to have been derived from the old rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all parts of it. ''In drawing [their bow] some fetch such a compass as though they would turn about and bless all the field.'' --Ascham.
{Bless me!} {Bless us!} an exclamation of surprise. --Milton.
{To bless from}, to secure, defend, or preserve from. ''Bless me from marrying a usurer.'' --Shak.
To bless the doors from nightly harm. --Milton.
{To bless with}, {To be blessed with}, to favor or endow with; to be favored or endowed with; as, God blesses us with health; we are blessed with happiness.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Blessed \Bless"ed\ (bl[e^]s"[e^]d), adjective
1. Hallowed; consecrated; worthy of blessing or adoration; heavenly; holy.
O, run; prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his blessed feet. --Milton.
2. Enjoying happiness or bliss; favored with blessings; happy; highly favored.
All generations shall call me blessed. --Luke i. 48.
Towards England's blessed shore. --Shak.
3. Imparting happiness or bliss; fraught with happiness; blissful; joyful. ''Then was a blessed time.'' ''So blessed a disposition.'' --Shak.
4. Enjoying, or pertaining to, spiritual happiness, or heavenly felicity; as, the blessed in heaven.
Reverenced like a blessed saint. --Shak.
Cast out from God and blessed vision. --Milton.
5. (R. C. Ch.) Beatified.
6. Used euphemistically, ironically, or intensively.
Not a blessed man came to set her [a boat] free. --R. D. Blackmore.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
blessed
adjective
1: highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace); "our blessed land"; "the blessed assurance of a steady income" [syn: {blest}] [ant: {cursed}]
2: worthy of worship; "the Blessed Trinity"
3: expletives used informally as intensifiers; "he's a blasted idiot"; "it's a blamed shame"; "a blame cold winter"; "not a blessed dime"; "I'll be damned (or blessed or darned or goddamned) if I'll do any such thing"; "he's a damn (or goddam or goddamned) fool"; "a deuced idiot"; "tired or his everlasting whimpering"; "an infernal nuisance" [syn: {blasted}, {blame}, {blamed}, {damn}, {damned}, {darned}, {deuced}, {everlasting}, {goddam}, {goddamn}, {goddamned}, {infernal}]
4: Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy of veneration [syn: {beatified}]
5: enjoying the bliss of heaven
6: characterized by happiness and good fortune; "a blessed time"
7: having good fortune bestowed or conferred upon; sometimes used as in combination; "blessed with a strong healthy body"; "a nation blessed with peace"; "a peace-blessed era" [syn: {blessed with(p)}, {endued with(p)}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
92 Moby Thesaurus words for "blessed": Elysian, Olympian, absolute, auspicious, beaming, beatific, beatified, beatitude, blamed, blankety-blank, blasted, blessed with luck, blessedness, bliss, blissful, blooming, canonized, capering, celestial, cheerful, chirping, confounded, consecrated, cursed, cussed, dadburned, dancing, danged, darn, darned, dashed, dedicated, deuced, devoted, doggone, doggoned, downright, ethereal, extramundane, extraterrestrial, favored, flushed with joy, fortunate, from on high, gay, glad, glorified, glowing, goldanged, goldarned, goshdarn, hallowed, happy, heavenly, in glory, in luck, infernal, joyful, joyous, laughing, leaping, lucky, otherworldly, outright, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac, paradisic, perfect, positive, providential, purring, radiant, regular, ruddy, sacred, sainted, saintly, sanctified, set apart, singing, smiling, smirking, sparkling, starry-eyed, supernal, thrice happy, transcendental, transmundane, unearthly, unmitigated, unworldly
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