# bless

/ˈbɫɛs/ (US) · /blˈɛs/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/bless
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. religious sanctification

verb · CEFR B1

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

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

- The priest will bless the new house and the family living there.
- During the ceremony, the bishop will bless the congregation, invoking peace and prosperity for the coming year.

### 2. to approve or support

verb · CEFR B2

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

For teachers: to grant approval, assent, or support to a proposal or undertaking.

- The manager decided to bless the project after seeing the final budget.
- The board of directors finally chose to bless the merger, provided that the current management team remained in place for the transition.

### 3. programming

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

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

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

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

### 4. expression of endearment

interjection · CEFR B1 · British English · Informal

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

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

- He brought me a cup of tea without being asked—bless him.
- She spent all afternoon baking these cookies for the charity sale, bless her heart.

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

## Examples

- The priest will bless the new house tomorrow.
- Many people say 'bless you' when someone sneezes as a small gesture of politeness.
- The community gathered at the shoreline to watch the bishop bless the fishing fleet, a tradition intended to ensure a safe and productive season for the local sailors.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.