Noun She opened the door and felt a cold blast. He was hit by a blast of water from the hose. The driver gave a long blast on his horn. the blast of the factory whistle The bomb blast killed eight people. Verb Workers were blasting rock where the new highway will go. The rock has been blasted away. The explosion blasted a hole in the side of the ship. The mayor was blasted by the local press. The judge blasted the lawyers for delaying the trial. Human rights groups have blasted the government for its treatment of political prisoners. He blasted his rival with a pistol. A gunship blasted enemy headquarters. They blasted the enemy plane out of the sky. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Gonzalez’s second shot, a two-run blast in the fourth, followed Naylor’s 20th double and gave the rookie seven home runs and 31 RBI in just his 65th career game. Joe Noga, cleveland, 10 Sep. 2022 But that’s what the windows were supposed to do—they’re blast-resistant. Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 9 Sep. 2022 Rookie first baseman Joey Meyer led off the ninth against Red Sox ace Roger Clemens with a blast that just curled around the right-field foul pole to give Milwaukee a 3-2 win. Jr Radcliffe, Journal Sentinel, 8 Sep. 2022 Aquino homered again to left field in the top of the ninth inning, connecting on another hanging slider for a 390-foot solo blast.The Enquirer, 8 Sep. 2022 Oleksandr, a 28-year-old former construction worker, lost his arm in a mortar blast during the counteroffensive last week. John Hudson, Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2022 The Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, reported a powerful blast in the city around midday. Hanna Arhirova, Anchorage Daily News, 6 Sep. 2022 One-Eyed Jack is a 350-pound, 24-year-old bear missing his left eye from a homeowner’s shotgun blast and with a hole in his side, probably from an old car collision. Doug Struck, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Sep. 2022 After a quick glance at goal and a powerful strike, Williams’ blast from 25 yards found the back of the net, breaking a tie and edging the Gators to a 3-2 win over the Bulls. Colin Murphy, Baltimore Sun, 6 Sep. 2022
Verb
Soldano went on to blast Whitmer's administration over the controversial topic of CRT in the state's schools and accused it of calling the subject by a number of other names to claim CRT wasn't being taught. Brandon Gillespie, Fox News, 28 July 2022 The prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad took to Twitter to blast Mahallati. Benjamin Weinthal, Fox News, 13 Aug. 2022 As Donald Trump and Republicans blast the FBI for its search of his Mar-a-Lago home, Democrats defended the search as an appropriate law enforcement action. Rebecca Morin, USA TODAY, 10 Aug. 2022 On July 5, Rob took to Instagram to blast his ex, sharing graphic and expletive-ridden content about the mother of his child - including three naked photos - while accusing her of drug/alcohol abuse and infidelity. Grace Gavilanes, Peoplemag, 7 Aug. 2022 Palin was quick to blast party leadership for the decision. Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News, 22 Apr. 2022 Democrats have begun to blast big companies for taking advantage of the moment.New York Times, 10 Dec. 2021 Democrats were quick to blast DeWine for signing off on the new map. Andrew J. Tobias, cleveland, 20 Nov. 2021 SpaceX moved closer to trying to blast its massive Starship vehicle into orbit, after U.S. aviation regulators concluded that the company’s plans wouldn’t have a major environmental impact near its South Texas launch site. Micah Maidenberg, WSJ, 13 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, from Old English blǣst; akin to Old High German blāst blast, blāsan to blow, Old English blāwan — more at blow
Verb
Middle English blasten, derivative of blastblast entry 1
Combining form
combining form from Greek blastós "shoot, bud, embryo, germ" — more at -blast
Noun combining form
combining form from Greek blastós "shoot, bud, embryo, germ," noun derivative from the base of blastánein "to bud, sprout, grow," of obscure origin
Note: The supposed base *melōdh- "protuberance, head" in Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (citing, in addition to blastós, Sanskrit mūrdhan- "head," Greek blōthrós "tall," Old English molda "top of the head") is improbable as an Indo-European root;a substratal origin is possible, but the semantic links are weak.
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a