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blast

UK/blɑːst/US/blæst/
nounB12 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #1,751 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: blasts

A blast is a sudden violent rush of air or sound. A blast of wind, a bomb blast, a blast on the horn.

The damage from an explosion is mostly the pressure wave rather than the fire, which is why blast injuries reach people who were never touched by anything. A blast is also a great time, in informal use. Full blast means at maximum. Note that the Old English word means a blowing.

Definitions of blast

  1. 1nounblastA sudden violent rush of air or sound.B1

    “A blast of cold air came in when she opened the door.”

  2. 2nounenjoyableA very enjoyable time.B2

    “Thanks for the party last night; we had a blast!”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

blast is a rush of air, or an explosion.

Where it comes from

Old English blaest means a blowing or gust, from a Germanic root. Blow and bluster come from the same blowing.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *bʰleh₁-

  2. Middle English

    blast

  3. English, today

    blast

From Middle English blast. Middle English blast, from Old English blǣst (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-West Germanic blāstu, from Proto-Germanic blēstuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with West Frisian blast (“blast”), dialectal Dutch blast (“stubborn intent, drumming”), obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”), German blasen (“to blow”), Dutch blazen (“to blow”), Danish blæst (“wind”), French blaser (“to blunt, dull”). More at blow.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

blast in the wild

  • Dedicated blast shelters are built specifically for blast protection (see bunker).

    Blast shelter

  • A hammer blow, the product being dropped, or impact from a low-velocity bullet or shotgun blast will not initiate a reaction.

    Tannerite

  • The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Ahmedabad, India, on 26 July 2008, within a span of 70 minutes.

    2008 Ahmedabad bombings

  • The blasts were considered to be of low intensity and were similar to the Bangalore blasts, Karnataka which occurred the day before.

    2008 Ahmedabad bombings

  • Some types of MDS cause an increase in the production of immature blood cells (called blasts), in the bone marrow or blood.

    Myelodysplastic syndrome

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.