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bless

v. · interj.
US //ˈbɫɛs// UK //blˈɛs// bless
  1. 1 religious sanctification (v.)
    B1 Intermediate Religion

    to make something holy or ask for God's protection and help.

    to consecrate or make holy by religious rite; to invoke divine favour upon a person or object.

    Example

    The priest will bless the new house and the family living there.

    Example

    During the ceremony, the bishop will bless the congregation, invoking peace and prosperity for the coming year.
    • sanctify
    • consecrate
    • hallow
  2. 2 to approve or support (v.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate

    to give your official approval or support to a plan or idea.

    to grant approval, assent, or support to a proposal or undertaking.

    Example

    The manager decided to bless the project after seeing the final budget.

    Example

    The board of directors finally chose to bless the merger, provided that the current management team remained in place for the transition.
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  1. 3 programming (v.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Computing

    to turn a piece of data into a specific type of object in certain computer languages.

    to associate a reference with a specific package or class, effectively turning it into an object. Transitive; specific to the Perl programming language.

    Example

    In Perl, you use the bless function to create an object from a reference.

    Example

    The constructor method must explicitly bless the hash reference into the class to enable method inheritance.

    Usage

    The verb takes a reference as its primary object and an optional package name as the second argument.
    • instantiate
  2. 4 expression of endearment (interj.)
    B1 Intermediate British English Informal

    a word you say when someone does something sweet, kind, or slightly silly.

    an exclamation used to express endearment, gratitude, or occasionally patronising sympathy.

    Example

    He brought me a cup of tea without being asked—bless him.

    Example

    She spent all afternoon baking these cookies for the charity sale, bless her heart.

    Teacher's tip

    Often used as 'Bless you' or 'Bless her'. Be aware that it can sound slightly condescending depending on the speaker's tone.
Etymology 1

From Middle English blessen, from Old English bletsian (“to consecrate (with blood)”), from Proto-West Germanic blōdisōn (“to sprinkle, mark or hallow with blood”), from Proto-Germanic blōþą (“blood”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”). Cognate with Old Norse bleza (“to bless”) (whence Icelandic blessa), Old English blēdan (“to bleed”). More at bleed.

Etymology 2

An ellipsis for an expression such as bless your heart.

Idioms2 entries

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