Word Direct Answers

What does "bless" mean?

Bless: 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. )

Additional senses

  1. 2.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.
  2. 3.4. 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.
  3. 4.5. To make the sign of the cross upon; to cross (one's self). [Archaic] Holinshed.
  4. 5.To guard; to keep; to protect. [Obs.]
  5. 6.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.
  6. 7.8. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate. The nations shall bless themselves in him. Jer. iv.
  7. 8.9. 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. Bless me! Bless us! an exclamation of surprise. Milton. -- To bless from, to secure, defend, or preserve from. "Bless me from marrying a usurer." Shak. To bless the doors from nightly harm. Milton. -- To bless with, To be blessed with, to favor or endow with; to be favored or endowed with; as, God blesses us with health; we are blessed with happiness.

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