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Blaze

1. A stream of gas or vapor emitting light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame. To heaven the blaze uprolled.

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. For what is glory but the blaze of fame? (Milton)

4. [Cf. D.; akin to E. Light] 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. The horses did along like blazes tear.

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.

Synonym: 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 flame 7ad s.

Origin: oe. Blase, as. Blaese, 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. 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)