Forms: 3–4 blend-en, 5–7 blende, 4– blend, (5 blynde, 5–6 blenne, 6 blynne, blente). Pa. t. 3–5 blend(e, 5– blent, blended. Pa. pple. 3–5 blend, 4 blende, blente, 4– blent, 6– blended, (8 arch. yblent). [ME. blend-en wk. vb., appears c. 1300, at first in northern writers. Evidently akin to BLAND sb. mixture, and the OE. strong vb. bland-an, ON. blanda (Sw. blanda, Da. blande) to mix: see BLAND v. But the ME. vb. (however the change of vowel may be explained) can hardly have been a continuation of the OE. blandan, since this was all but obsolete already in OE., while blenden was a common word from the 14th c. More probably the latter was an adoption of the ON. blanda (which though originally strong, had subsequently weak inflexions); the change of vowel may also have been due to the ON. sing. present blend, blendr: whether any association with BLEND v.1 (with which it entirely coincides in forms) or other extraneous influence contributed, does not appear. But later identification with BLEND v.1 is shown by the occasional use of blynde for this verb also. The 16th c. blenne was either phonetic, like the converse len, lend, or deduced from the pa. pple. blend.]
1. trans.
1. To mix, to mingle: a. things material; b. things immaterial. Obs. exc. as in d, or with some coloring from the other senses (esp. 4).
a. a. 1300. Cursor M., 16768. Vinegre & gall þe jews blend. Ibid., 18019 (Gött.). Aisel haue i blend wid gall.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3492. To se … the blode … blent with the erthe.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 50. Grynde tansy, þo iuse owte wrynge, To blynde with þo egges.
1530. Palsgr., 457/2. Wyll you blenne wyne and ale togyther?
1585. Lloyd, Treas. Health, B vij. Putte therin … whyte Lead and Common Salt, and blynne them well together.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 394. These beeing dried in the Sun … they vse to blend with bean floure.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. ix. § 3 (1734), 208. Opiates … blended with small proportion of … Aromatick Medicines.
b. c. 1400. Pes may stond (Turnb., 1843), 155. Were luf and charite with hus blend.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 108. Þat blaberyng are wiþ oþes blent.
† c. To mingle with a company or crowd. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 385. In blysse I se þe blyþely blent.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 1010/1. These backesliders yt haue beene blended amongest vs.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 6. 39. We are blended with the Nobility.
d. To mix (sorts of spirits, tea, wines, etc.), so as to produce a certain quality.
a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl., II. (1847), 82. All mashers, minglers of wyne in the nighte Brewinge so blendinge againste daye lighte.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 25. [Vintners] make of one hogshead almost two … by mixing and blenting one with another, and infusing other liquor. Ibid., 28. To intermix and blente the good and naughtie wooll togither.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Sept., 6/2. A number of brands (varied by the blending of the tobaccos).
† 2. To mix or stir up (a liquid); hence sometimes, to render turbid, pollute, spoil, destroy; sometimes, to agitate, trouble: to disturb (joy, peace, beauty, weather).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13767. Par-in was won for to descend Angels þe water for to blend.
1384. Chaucer, Truth, 4. Prees hathe envye and wele is blent over al.
c. 1593. Spenser, Sonn., lxii. These stormes, which now his beauty blend, Shall turn to calmes.
1594. Greene, Look. Glasse (1874), 137. When mildest wind is loth to blend the peace. Ibid. (1861), 124. My Hesperus by cloudy death is blent.
1596. Lodge, Marg. Amer., 65. Thy sap by course of time is blent.
† b. Applied (according to ancient physiology) to disturbance or agitation of the blood (from its supposed normal state of rest): pass. and intr. To rush, flow; also active, To shed. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17333. Pilate was þar, his blod was blend, Quen he wessen had his hend.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2371. Alle þe blode of his brest blende in his face.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. 225. To be in payn thus broght, Thi blessid blode to blende.
3. To mingle intimately or closely with.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 1330. Thy throne royall [is] with dishonour blent.
1788. J. Powell, Devises (1827), II. 95. If a testator has blended his real with his personal fund.
1800. Wordsw., Hart-leap Well, II. xxi. Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, lii. (1868), 405. It blent itself as an exalting memory with all her daily labours.
4. To mix (components) intimately or harmoniously so that their individuality is obscured in the product; esp. of qualities, properties, effects, etc.; now the most frequent trans. use.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 257. Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white, Natures owne … hand laid on.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 261. Providence hath so wisely blended the benefits of this county, that … it is defective in nothing.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 128, ¶ 11. Their Virtues are blended in their Children.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. xxix. Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red burial blent.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. iii. 13. In one of those wide spaces in which Modern and Ancient Rome seemed blent together. Ibid. (1848), Harold, I. i. 4. In that beauty were blended two expressions.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ix. § 2. 610. A common persecution soon blended the Nonconformists into one.
† 5. To mix up in the mind, regard as the same, confound with. Obs. rare.
1780. Coxe, Russ. Discov., 74. Six islands … to the North West of the Fox Islands … must not be blended with them.
II. intr.
6. To mix, mingle; esp. to unite intimately, so as to form a uniform or harmonious mixture.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1788. Boþe his blod & his brayn blende on þe cloþes.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 5690. Moses sagh þai dide ham wrange & sone he blende ham a-mange.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, XXIV. 9642. The bloberond blode blend with the rayn.
1773. Young, Last Day, III. 251. Cities and desarts in one ruin blend.
1792. Wordsw., Descr. Sk., Poet. Wks. I. 83. All motions, sounds, and voices … Blend in a music of tranquillity.
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxviii. 18. She whose honey delights blend with a bitter annoy.
7. To pass imperceptibly into each other by assimilation or confusion of contiguous parts, esp. in reference to color. To blend away: to pass away by blending.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, I. 111. Oh! ne’er did sky and water blend In such a holy sleep.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 9. In Europe, the features and population of one country blend almost imperceptibly with those of another.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 27. 196. The distant peaks gradually blended with the white atmosphere above them.
1862. Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, v. 159. The division between them, in this their leading character, blends away.
