blade








noun

  1. the flat cutting part of a sword, knife, etc.
  2. a sword, rapier, or the like.
  3. a similar part, as of a mechanism, used for clearing, wiping, scraping, etc.: the blade of a windshield wiper; the blade of a bulldozer.
  4. the arm of a propeller or other similar rotary mechanism, as an electric fan or turbine.
  5. Botany.
    1. the leaf of a plant, especially of a grass or cereal.
    2. the broad part of a leaf, as distinguished from the stalk or petiole.
  6. the metal part of an ice skate that comes into contact with the ice.
  7. a thin, flat part of something, as of an oar or a bone: shoulder blade.
  8. Archaic. a dashing, swaggering, or jaunty young man: a gay blade from the nearby city.
  9. a swordsman.
  10. Phonetics.
    1. the foremost and most readily flexible portion of the tongue, including the tip and implying the upper and lower surfaces and edges.
    2. the upper surface of the tongue directly behind the tip, lying beneath the alveolar ridge when the tongue is in a resting position.
  11. the elongated hind part of a fowl’s single comb.

noun

  1. the part of a sharp weapon, tool, etc, that forms the cutting edge
  2. (plural) Australian and NZ hand shears used for shearing sheep
  3. the thin flattish part of various tools, implements, etc, as of a propeller, turbine, etc
  4. the flattened expanded part of a leaf, sepal, or petal
  5. the long narrow leaf of a grass or related plant
  6. the striking surface of a bat, club, stick, or oar
  7. the metal runner on an ice skate
  8. archaeol a long thin flake of flint, possibly used as a tool
  9. the upper part of the tongue lying directly behind the tip
  10. archaic a dashing or swaggering young man
  11. short for shoulder blade
  12. a poetic word for a sword, swordsman
n.

Old English blæd “a leaf,” but also “a leaf-like part” (of spade, oar, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *bladaz (cf. Old Frisian bled “leaf,” German blatt, Old Saxon, Danish, Dutch blad, Old Norse blað), from PIE *bhle-to-, suffixed form (past participle) of *bhel- (3) “to thrive, bloom,” possibly identical with *bhel- (2) “to blow, swell” (see bole). Extended in Middle English to shoulders (c.1300) and swords (early 14c.). The modern use in reference to grass may be a Middle English revival, by influence of Old French bled “corn, wheat” (11c., perhaps from Germanic). The cognate in German, Blatt, is the general word for “leaf;” Laub is used collectively as “foliage.” Old Norse blað was used of herbs and plants, lauf in reference to trees. This might have been the original distinction in Old English, too. Of men from 1590s; in later use often a reference to 18c. gallants, but the original exact sense, and thus signification, is uncertain.

    1. The expanded part of a leaf or petal. Also called lamina See more at leaf.
    2. The leaf of grasses and similar plants.
  1. A stone tool consisting of a slender, sharp-edged, unserrated flake that is at least twice as long as it is wide. Blade tools were developed late in the stone tool tradition, after core and flake tools, and were probably used especially as knives.
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