Blaze (blaz), n.
Etymology: [OE. blase, AS. blæse, blase; akin to OHG. blass whitish, G. blass pale, MHG. blas torch, Icel. blys torch; perh. fr. the same root as E. blast. Cf. Blast, Blush, Blink.]
1. A stream of gas or vapor emitting light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame. "To heaven the blaze uprolled." Croly.
2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat; as, to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon! Milton.
3. A bursting out, or active display of any quality; an outburst; a brilliant display. "Fierce blaze of riot." "His blaze of wrath." Shak. For what is glory but the blaze of fame Milton.
4. [Cf. D. bles; akin to E. blaze light.]
4 more senses
A white spot on the forehead of a horse.
5. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark. Three blazes in a perpendicular line on the same tree indicating a legislative road, the single blaze a settlement or neighborhood road. Carlton. In a blaze, on fire; burning with a flame; filled with, giving, or reflecting light; excited or exasperated. -- Like blazes, furiously; rapidly. [Low] "The horses did along like blazes tear." Poem in Essex dialect.
Note: In low language in the U. S., blazes is frequently used of something extreme or excessive, especially of something very bad; as, blue as blazes. Neal.
Syn. -- Blaze, Flame. A blaze and a flame are both produced by burning gas. In blaze the idea of light rapidly evolved is prominent, with or without heat; as, the blaze of the sun or of a meteor. Flame includes a stronger notion of heat; as, he perished in the flames.
3 other Webster entries under this spelling
Blaze, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Blazed; p. pr. & vb. n. Blazing.]
1. To shine with flame; to glow with flame; as, the fire blazes.
2. To send forth or reflect glowing or brilliant light; to show a blaze. And far and wide the icy summit blazed. Wordsworth.
3. To be resplendent. Macaulay. To blaze away, to discharge a firearm, or to continue firing; -- said esp. of a number of persons, as a line of soldiers. Also used (fig.) of speech or action. [Colloq.]
Blaze, v. t.
1. To mark (a tree) by chipping off a piece of the bark. I found my way by the blazed trees. Hoffman.
2. To designate by blazing; to mark out, as by blazed trees; as, to blaze a line or path. Champollion died in 1832, having done little more than blaze out the road to be traveled by others. Nott.
Blaze, v. t.
1. To make public far and wide; to make known; to render conspicuous. On charitable lists he blazed his name. Pollok. To blaze those virtues which the good would hide. Pope.
2. (Her.)
To blazon. [Obs.] Peacham.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for blaze; he lists it under burn, fire, light.
Where he writes about it:
Fire is always attended with light, as well as heat; blaze, flame, etc., designate the mingled light and heat of a fire. — from fire
Light, strictly denoting a form of radiant energy, is used as a general term for any luminous effect discernible by the eye, from the faintest phosphorescence to the blaze of the noonday sun. — from light
A blaze is an extensive, brilliant flame. — from light
A flare is a wavering flame or blaze; a flash is a light that appears and disappears in an instant; as, a flash of lightning; the flash of gunpowder. — from light