subs. and verb (common).—1. In some usages slang is narrowly touched: e.g, when a man is said to BLAZE his way through the labyrinths of the metropolis. The original meaning is well known. The early settlers on the American continent, found it very necessary to mark their route. This they did by the simple expedient of BLAZING the trees at convenient distances. BLAZING consists merely in chopping a piece of the bark off each tree selected in the desired line of march. The mark itself is called a BLAZE. BLAZING also indicated that the land thus marked had been appropriated by a settler—a rude and informal, but, in early days, a thoroughly well recognised method of securing a title to the land.
1737. WESLEY, Works (1872) I., 68. We then found another BLAZE and pursued it.
1883. BRET HARTE, In the Carquinez Woods, viii. ‘I made a blaze hereabouts to show where to leave the trail. There it is,’ he added, pointing to a slight notch cut in the trunk of an adjoining tree…. They proceeded cautiously at right angles with the BLAZED tree for ten minutes more.
BLAZE-AWAY, intj. (common).—Look sharp; ‘stir your stumps’—an injunction to renewed and more effective effort.
