Also 3, 7 blaste. [f. the sb.]
† 1. intr. To blow, to puff violently. Obs.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5348. Dragouns … grisely whistleden and blasten.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 397/3. Ther came a grete multytude of fendes blastyng and roryng.
1530. Palsgr., 457/1. To blaste with ones mouthe or with belowes.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 23 (Jam.). Twa shepherds out of breath, Rais’d-like and blasting.
† b. trans. To blow (out, forth, abroad); to breathe (out), utter loudly, proclaim. Obs.
1536. Latimer, Serm. bef. Convoc., i. 35. Counterfeit doctrine, which hath been blasted and blown out by some.
1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI. an. 14 (R.). They blasted emongest themselfes, that the Calisians would leaue the town desolate.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 712. The winde … whereby this fire was … blasted abroad.
c. nonce-wd. To emit blasts.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 14/1. The engine which had been clanking and blasting in our ears incessantly for so many days.
† 2. a. intr. To blow (on a trumpet or other wind instrument). b. trans. To blow (a trumpet, etc.). c. with the hearers as object.: To din or denounce by trumpeting. Obs.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1866. Toke his blake trumpe faste And gan to puffen and to blaste.
1530. Palsgr., 457/1. He blasted his horne so hygh that all the wodde dyd shake.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. viii. 36. Trumpetters With brazen dinne blast you the Citties eare.
1858. Polson, Law & L., 197. ‘Blasting you at the horn,’ ‘poinding your estate.’
3. intr. To boast, ‘blow one’s own trumpet.’ Sc.
1814. Saxon & Gael, I. 100 (Jam.). I am no gien to blast.
† 4. a. trans. To blow (up), inflate. b. intr. (for refl.) To swell up. Obs. exc. dial.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xcv. 137. The same herbe … slaketh the [bowels] whan they are blasted vp and swollen. Ibid., II. xxv. 177. A yong Catt whereunto I haue giuen of these floures to eate … blasted immediatly, and shortly after died.
1874. T. Hardy, Madding Crowd, I. xxi. 228. [A rustic says] ‘They [the sheep] be getting blasted.’… ‘Joseph,’ he said, ‘the sheep have blasted themselves.’
5. trans. To blow up (rocks, etc.) by explosion.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, xv. § 1. 161. The miner is generally obliged to blast the rock.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xv. 314. His shallow schemes were blasted to atoms.
1859. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 279. The ledge of rock had been blasted and hewn away.
6. (dial.) To smoke (tobacco). Cf. blow. (The usual word in S. Scotl.)
II. To blow on perniciously.
7. trans. To blow or breathe on balefully or perniciously; to wither, shrivel or arrest vegetation; to blight. Said of a malignant wind, lightning, flame, and (formerly) of a ‘malignant’ planet.
1532. Frith, Mirror (1829), 277. By blasting thy fruits, or such other scourges.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 271. This lately advaunced building was blasted with flame.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 786. To be Blasted or striken with a planet.
1625. Milton, Death Fair Inf., i. O fairest flower, no sooner blown but blasted.
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Chirurg., XXVIII. (1678), 682. Every body that is blasted or stricken with lightning.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., II. 84. Southern Winds to blast my flowry Spring.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. ii. 38. The fertile vale of Siddim was blasted with eternal barrenness.
8. transf. and fig. (Blasting withers up the brightness, freshness, beauty, vitality and promise of living things: hence) a. To blight or ruin (hopes, plans, prosperity).
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. iv. (1840), 121. Oftentimes heaven blasteth those hopes which bud first and fairest.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot., I. II. 90. The death of Henry blasted all these hopes.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., x. 338. My personal prospects in the colony were for the present entirely blasted.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxiv. 397. When heinous sin earth’s wholesome purity blasted.
b. To bring infamy upon (character, reputation); to discredit effectually, ruin, destroy.
1596. Drayton, Leg., iv. 21. Would you forbeare to blast Me with Defame.
1660. Winstanley, Engl. Worthies (1684), 174. So hath this worthy Princes fame been blasted by malicious traducers.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 5. 31. This Query … is designed to blast the Memory and Title of King William.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxiv. 148. I did not attempt to blast your character.
1877. Conder, Bas. Faith, iv. 194. To blast this evidence with suspicion of untrustworthiness.
† c. To affect injuriously or perniciously with.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1637), 166. Some of the greatest Romans were a little blasted with this foolerie.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 152, ¶ 6. I was blasted with sudden imbecility.
d. To strike (the eyes or vision) with dimness or horror. arch.
a. 1771. Gray, Poems (1775), 24. He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Clos’d his eyes in endless night.
1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus, ix. (1831), 83. Wherever he turned his eyes they were blasted with some object which made them recoil.
1817. Coleridge, Sibyl. Leaves (1862), Still Edmund’s image rose to blast her view.
† 9. intr. To wither or fall under a blight. Obs.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 236. The Easterly winde maketh the blossomes to blast.
a. 1618. Raleigh, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 235. Tell Beauty how she blasteth.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 44 (1810), 50. This bud soon blasted in the blossom.
10. trans. To strike or visit with the wrath and curse of heaven; to curse. Often in imprecations.
1640–4. in Rushworth, Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 130. Blasted may that tongue be, that shall … derogate from the glory of those Halcyon days.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. iv. 3. His enemies … blasted him as a man of blood.
1706. Addison, Rosamond, I. i. My wrath like that of heav’n shall … blast her in her Paradise.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. iii. Calling on their Maker to curse them … blast them, and damn them.
b. absol. To curse, to use profane language.
1762. Gentl. Mag., 130. On they go … swearing, blasting, damning.
