ppl. a.

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  1.  Balefully or perniciously blown or breathed upon; stricken by meteoric or supernatural agency, as parching wind, lightning, an alleged malignant planet, the wrath and curse of heaven; blighted.

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1552.  Huloet, Blasted corne.

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1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., III. iv. 71. A blasted Sapling, wither’d vp. Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. iii. 77. Vpon this blasted Heath you stop our way.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 412. The blasted Starrs lookt wan.

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1727.  Thomson, Summer, 1152. Stretched below A lifeless groupe of blasted cattle lie.

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1850.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxvi. 318. A black, blasted tree.

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  2.  transf. and fig.; cf. BLAST v. 8.

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1742.  Collins, Ode to Fear. Lest thou meet my blasted view.

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1762.  Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), V. lxix. 168. The blasted credit of the Irish witnesses.

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1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 548. Driven … from public life with blasted characters.

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  3.  Cursed, damned. In low language as an expression of reprobation and hatred.

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1682.  Dryden, Medal, 260. What Curses on thy blasted Name will fall.

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1750.  Chesterf., Lett., 8 Jan. (1870), 169. Colonel Chartres … who was, I believe, the most notorious blasted rascal in the world.

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1874.  Pusey, Lent. Serm., 79. Balaam, after the success of his blasted counsel.

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1884.  Gd. Words, Nov., 767/1. Jim Black states that the ‘blasted’ railway has done away with those journeys.

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