blade
/bleɪd
/noun
1The flat cutting edge of a knife, saw, or other tool or weapon: cut cleanly using a sharp blade...
- Lay the clove on a cutting board and smash it with the flat of a knife blade.
- The captured prince screamed and tried to get out of her grasp but she had the sharp blade of a knife pressed against his throat.
- The knife was like a pocket knife, but bigger, the blade was still sharp.
1.1 literary A sword.Daggers, blades and scimitars like his looked to be the weapon of preference....
- He sidestepped and took a wild swing at her back, to be met by an arcing sword that struck his blade out of his hand and sent it whirling.
- One look at the sword, a slender blade as smooth as ice, and she felt her mind sliding into soft clouds.
1.2 (blades) Australian /NZ Hand shears used in sheep shearing.Outside the museum is a model of a shearing shed from the colonial period with the blades for shearing and a wool press....
- Shearing was changed from machine to hand held blades which was a much longer process, but left a short coat on the sheep for protection.
1.3 Archaeology A long, narrow flake.Small worked flint blades known as microliths were perhaps the barbs of spears and harpoons with wooden shafts....
- They consist of a large number of carefully made large blades and flakes and an unusually high proportion of finished tools including backed knives, scrapers and borers.
- A small number of end scrapers made on blades have been identified at the Dash Reeves site.
2The flat, wide section of an implement or device such as an oar or a propeller.A light aircraft had lost one of its propeller blades and a second blade was badly damaged, a report has revealed....
- The engine and nose bowl have been restored to display condition while propeller blades from another aircraft have been fitted to the hub.
- This device stops the spinning blade within three seconds of release of the handle.
2.1A thin, flat metal runner on an ice skate.The four wheels and the metal plate on a roller skate are much heavier than the single blade on an ice skate....
- He listened to the blades of Lydie's ice-skates glide across the ice smoothly.
- Young men on blades are willing to do anything - take a puck in the face, throw their bodies into places they don't belong.
2.2 (also running blade) A prosthetic lower limb designed for athletes, consisting of a flattened length of carbon fibre with a long, curved section at the base: Lydia is being taught to run on blades the Paralympics brought prosthetics such as running blades into the limelight....
- He has been using his running blades - shortened versions of those used by Paralympics track athletes.
- She is now able to sprint, jump and skip again using her new running blades
- These blades are designed specifically for running and are made of carbon fibre.
3 (also blade bone) A shoulder bone in a joint of meat, or the joint itself.
3.1The flat part of the tongue behind the tip.The sensory distribution of nerve endings in the tongue tip is especially rich while there are few receptors in the dorsum or blade of the tongue....
- The lingual frenum can be located under the tongue and is a vertical band of tissue that attaches the blade of the tongue to the floor of the mouth.
- When the front of the tongue is used, it may be the upper surface or blade of the tongue that makes contact, the tip of the tongue, or the under surface.
4A long, narrow leaf of grass or another similar plant: a blade of grass...
- The natural element could be a leaf, a blade of grass, or a flower.
- Not a leaf, not a blade of grass, stirred in the sultry air.
- It is an exciting moment for me when I see a blade of grass or see a leaf of a tree, and when I listen to birds chattering and to running water in a stream.
4.1 Botany The broad, thin part of a leaf apart from the stalk.The iliac blade tapers and thins ventrally so that its ventral surface forms a sharp ridge....
- The collar is where the leaf blade visually breaks away from the sheath and the stalk.
- They climb on leaf blades and clip them off, causing the blades to fall unconsumed to the ground.
5 informal, dated A dashing or energetic young man: the director, a young blade in an oversized suit...
- They were triumphant and he felt like a dashing young blade in football.
- In the nightclubs of wartime London, young blades trying to impress their girlfriends would turn up sometimes wearing German uniforms.
- I should mention that we young blades came from the north side of the bog, a distance of more than two miles.
verb [no object] US informal
Skate using Rollerblades: she loves to run, bike, blade, and explore the city (as noun blading) blading with the wind in your face...that’s really nice...
- It is also home to a dynamic range of attractions and miles of wonderful beaches with paved paths for jogging, biking and blading.
- Judy loved ice-skating as much as Doug loved blading.
- Okay, we'll go back to my house and I'll change and we'll go blading.
Derivatives
bladed
/ adjective [in combination]: double-bladed paddles
blader
- Bikers, skaters and bladers from all over the district attended the demonstration.
- The challenge has taken members of the club for BMX bikers, skaters and bladers more than two months to complete.
- Young skaters, bladers and bikers are needed to help boost fundraising efforts for the proposed new wheel park.
Origin
Old English blæd 'leaf of a plant' (also in sense 2 of the noun), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch blad and German Blatt.
The common senses of Old English blæd were ‘leaf of a plant’ and ‘flat section (of an oar, sword, etc.)’; the root is Germanic.
Rhymes
- magnetoelastic
- magnetoelasticity
- magneto-electric
- magneto-electricity
- magneto-electric machine
- magnetoencephalogram
- magnetoencephalographic
- magnetoencephalography
- magnetogasdynamics
- magneto-generator
- magnetogram
- magnetograph
- magnetographic
- magnetogyric
- magnetohydrodynamic
- magnetohydrodynamical
- magnetohydrodynamicist
- magnetohydrodynamics
- magnetohydrostatic
- magnetoid
- magneto ignition
- magneto-induced
- magneto-ionic
- magnetologist
- magnetology