And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
--Gen. ii. 3.
2. To make happy, blithesome, or joyous; to confer prosperity
or happiness upon; to grant divine favor to.
The quality of mercy is . . . twice blest; It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes. --Shak.
It hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy
servant, that it may continue forever before thee.
--1 Chron.
xvii. 27 (R.
V. )
3. To express a wish or prayer for the happiness of; to
invoke a blessing upon; -- applied to persons.
Bless them which persecute you. --Rom. xii.
14.
4. To invoke or confer beneficial attributes or qualities
upon; to invoke or confer a blessing on, -- as on food.
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and
looking up to heaven, he blessed them. --Luke ix.
16.
5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self).
[Archaic] --Holinshed.
6. To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
7. To praise, or glorify; to extol for excellences.
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. --Ps. ciii. 1.
8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
The nations shall bless themselves in him. --Jer.
iv. 3.
9. To wave; to brandish. [Obs.]
And burning blades about their heads do bless.
--Spenser.
Round his armed head his trenchant blade he blest.
--Fairfax.
Note: This is an old sense of the word, supposed by Johnson,
Nares, and others, to have been derived from the old
rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all
parts of it. ``In drawing [their bow] some fetch such a
compass as though they would turn about and bless all
the field.'' --Ascham.