The Collaborative International Dictionary
Blaze \Blaze\ (bl[=a]z), n. [OE. blase, AS. bl[ae]se, 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.]
A stream of gas or vapor emitting light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame. ``To heaven the blaze uprolled.''
--Croly.-
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. -
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. [Cf. D. bles; akin to E. blaze light.] A white spot on the forehead of a horse.
-
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.
Usage: 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.
Usage examples of "in a blaze".
The balloon, thus suddenly lightened, made a leap of three hundred feet into the air, amid the howlings of the tribe whose prisoner thus escaped them in a blaze of dazzling light.
From the time he had been old enough to understand the significance of life and the finality of death he had planned to depart this plane of existence in a blaze of glory that would be immortalized in ballad and song.
Now it seemed he was to expire simply in a blaze, as something else’.
As the sun rose in a blaze of blue, cloudless sky above Isig, they rode through Kyrth, down the little-travelled road that led through Isig Pass to Erlenstar Mountain.
She shivered, remembering the kiss, and the icy kernel in her heart was all but consumed in a blaze of sheer physical yearning.
She'll return to the Earth and smash in a blaze of fire and thunder, for there's no way yet of devising a safe landing for a rocket ship.
Then the pale purple of a Tonite beam lashes out in a blaze of fury against the screen of an enemy ship, and in so doing, its own screen is forced to blink out.
You can run off, looking for the truth, wanting to die in a blaze of glory when you find it.
A smart shower at eleven had evidently quenched the enthusiasm of the young ladies who were to arrive at twelve, for nobody came, and at two the exhausted family sat down in a blaze of sunshine to consume the perishable portions of the feast, that nothing might be lost.
Once established he released it in a blaze of emptiness, holding only to the image of a blue flower, bright and ethereal against a backdrop of endless black space, unlit by stars.