Crossword clues for blarney
blarney
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
blarney \blar"ney\ (bl[aum]r"n[y^]), n. [Blarney, a village and castle near Cork in Ireland.] Smooth, wheedling talk; flattery. [Colloq.]
Blarney stone, a stone in Blarney castle, Ireland (built in 1446), said to make those who kiss it proficient in the use of blarney.
Note: The origin of the stone is uncertain. In order to kiss the Blarney stone, which is located in the side of the castle, one must be held upside-down by the feet and lowered into the proper position from an opening in an overhang in the parapet. It is an experience eschewed by some tourists.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1796, from Blarney Stone (which is said to make a persuasive flatterer of any who kiss it), in a castle near Cork, Ireland. As Bartlett explains it, the reason is the difficulty of the feat of kissing the stone where it sits high up in the battlement: "to have ascended it, was proof of perseverence, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honor who never achieved the adventure." So to have kissed the Blarney Stone came to mean "to tell wonderful tales" ["Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]. The word reached wide currency through Lady Blarney, the smooth-talking flatterer in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1766). As a verb from 1803.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Mindless chatter. 2 Ability to talk constantly. 3 Persuasive flattery or kind speech; smooth, wheedling talk; flattery. vb. To beguile with flattery.
WordNet
n. flattery designed to gain favor [syn: coaxing, soft soap, sweet talk]
Wikipedia
Blarney is a town and townland in County Cork, Ireland. It lies north-west of Cork and is famed as the site of Blarney Castle, home of the legendary Blarney Stone.
Blarney may refer to:
- Blarney, town and townland in County Cork, Ireland
- Blarney (film), Irish film directed by Marcel De Sano from 1926
- 2320 Blarney, main-belt asteroid
- Blarney (code name), an NSA surveillance program.
See also:
- Blarney Castle, medieval stronghold in Blarney
- Blarney Stone, block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle
- Blarney United F.C., Irish amateur football club
BLARNEY is a communications surveillance program of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. It started in 1978, operated under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and was expanded after the September 11 attacks.
The collection takes place at top-level telecommunications facilities within the United States, choke points through which most traffic will flow, including wireless. This type of surveillance is referred to as Upstream collection.
BLARNEY was first brought to public view in a PRISM slide revealed by Edward Snowden. The FY 2013 budget for BLARNEY was $65.96 million.
Usage examples of "blarney".
Rest, on the way to Blarney, the tarmac-gray sky had grown even darker, and huge spots of rain had begun to fall across the road.
Blarney Castle, a few miles northwest of Cork City, to do what all conscientious tourists were obliged to do, and kiss the Blarney Stone.
Winnebago and three mobile homes parked on a derelict farm about a mile outside of Tower, on the Blarney road.
She turned up by the dark flinty walls of Cork Gaol, and up onto the Blarney Road.
This afternoon, however, Blarney was almost deserted, with only one coach in the car park.
We have a sighting of Fiona Kelly near Blarney, and a vehicle description.
I thought Ula was crazy, spouting off a bunch of blarney, but everything she said was true.
From Blarney to the Blaskets the distance is not that of a couple of counties, but the gap between Kylemore and Rinvyle between civilization and savagery.
I had an excellent opportunity of seeing the factory hands, for I went to Blarney on pay-day, and was greatly struck by the difference between their appearance and that of the people engaged in agriculture alone.
One reason of course of the comfortable look of the Blarney folk is that all the family work.
The houses of the workpeople at Blarney are neat and trim, white and clean, and a repose to the eyes of beholders, sick of slouching thatch and bulging mud walls.
He got his arm around her and began emitting the steady stream of blarney Irishmen use to calm women and horses.
There was an awkward silence which Flaherty filled with blarney while pouring drinks.
Rudolf sat and grumped while Lillith and Flaherty exchanged blarney in the kitchen.
Somewhere amid all that blarney Rudolf was sure he had heard something important.