Part 692

Towards England's blessed shore. Shak.

3. Imparting happiness or bliss; fraught with happiness; blissful; joyful. "Then was a blessed time." "So blessed a disposition." Shak.

4. Enjoying, or pertaining to, spiritual happiness, or heavenly felicity; as, the blessed in heaven.

Reverenced like a blessed saint. Shak.

Cast out from God and blessed vision. Milton.

5. (R. C. Ch.) Beatified.

6. Used euphemistically, ironically, or intensively.

Not a blessed man came to set her [a boat] free. R. D. Blackmore.

Bless"ed*ly, adv. Happily; fortunately; joyfully.

We shall blessedly meet again never to depart. Sir P. Sidney.

Bless"ed*ness, n. The state of being blessed; happiness; felicity; bliss; heavenly joys; the favor of God.

The assurance of a future blessedness. Tillotson.

Single blessedness, the unmarried state. "Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness." Shak.

Syn. -- Delight; beatitude; ecstasy. See Happiness.

Bless"ed this"tle (&?;). See under Thistle.

Bless"er (&?;), n. One who blesses; one who bestows or invokes a blessing.

Bless"ing, n. [AS. bletsung. See Bless, v. t.] 1. The act of one who blesses.

2. A declaration of divine favor, or an invocation imploring divine favor on some or something; a benediction; a wish of happiness pronounces.

This is the blessing, where with Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel. Deut. xxxiii. 1.

3. A means of happiness; that which promotes prosperity and welfare; a beneficent gift.

Nature's full blessings would be well dispensed. Milton.

4. (Bib.) A gift. [A Hebraism] Gen. xxxiii. 11.

5. Grateful praise or worship.

Blest, a. Blessed. "This patriarch blest." Milton.

White these blest sounds my ravished ear assail. Trumbull.

Blet (&?;), n. [F. blet, blette, a., soft from over ripeness.] A form of decay in fruit which is overripe.

Ble"ton*ism (&?;), n. The supposed faculty of perceiving subterraneous springs and currents by sensation; -- so called from one Bleton, of France.

Blet"ting (&?;), n. A form of decay seen in fleshy, overripe fruit. Lindley.