[f. as prec.]
1. trans. Of a ram: To couple with a ewe; to tup. In pass. said of the ewe.
1432–50. trans. Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 303. Iacob putte the roddes … afore the siȝhte of schepe when thei scholde be blissomede.
1483. Cath. Angl., 34. To Blessum, arietare.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 37.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, I. xxv. 111. One Ramme will serue to blesome fiftie Ewes.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.; 1721 in Bailey, and in later Dicts.
2. intr. ‘To caterwaul, to be lustful.’ J.
Hence Blissoming vbl. sb., Blissomed ppl. a.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lxxvii[i]. 70. Of after-blismed, [Vulg. de post fœtantes], him name he.
1721. Bailey, Blissoming, the Act of generation between a Ram and a Ewe.
1766. Rider, Dict., s.v., To go a blissoming is to desire the Ram.
