Blast \Blast\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blasted; p. pr. & vb. n. Blasting.]

1. To injure, as by a noxious wind; to cause to wither; to stop or check the growth of, and prevent from fruit-bearing, by some pernicious influence; to blight; to shrivel.

Seven thin ears, and blasted with the east wind. --Gen. xii. 6.

2. Hence, to affect with some sudden violence, plague, calamity, or blighting influence, which destroys or causes to fail; to visit with a curse; to curse; to ruin; as, to blast pride, hopes, or character.

I'll cross it, though it blast me. --Shak.

Blasted with excess of light. --T. Gray.

3. To confound by a loud blast or din.

Trumpeters, With brazen din blast you the city's ear. --Shak.

4. To rend open by any explosive agent, as gunpowder, dynamite, etc.; to shatter; as, to blast rocks.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

-blast \-blast\ [Gr. ? sprout, shoot.]

A suffix or terminal formative, used principally in biological terms, and signifying growth, formation; as, bioblast, epiblast, mesoblast, etc.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Blast \Blast\ (bl[.a]st), n. [AS. bl[=ae]st a puff of wind, a blowing; akin to Icel. bl[=a]str, OHG. bl[=a]st, and fr. a verb akin to Icel. bl[=a]sa to blow, OHG. bl[^a]san, Goth. bl[=e]san (in comp.); all prob. from the same root as E. blow. See Blow to eject air.]

1. A violent gust of wind.

And see where surly Winter passes off, Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill. --Thomson.

2. A forcible stream of air from an orifice, as from a bellows, the mouth, etc. Hence: The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace; as, to melt so many tons of iron at a blast.

Note: The terms hot blast and cold blast are employed to designate whether the current is heated or not heated before entering the furnace. A blast furnace is said to be in blast while it is in operation, and out of blast when not in use.

3. The exhaust steam from and engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.

4. The sound made by blowing a wind instrument; strictly, the sound produces at one breath.

One blast upon his bugle horn Were worth a thousand men. --Sir W. Scott.

The blast of triumph o'er thy grave. --Bryant.

5. A sudden, pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.

By the blast of God they perish. --Job iv. 9.

Virtue preserved from fell destruction's blast. --Shak.

6. The act of rending, or attempting to rend, heavy masses of rock, earth, etc., by the explosion of gunpowder, dynamite, etc.; also, the charge used for this purpose. ``Large blasts are often used.'' --Tomlinson.

7. A flatulent disease of sheep.

Blast furnace, a furnace, usually a shaft furnace for smelting ores, into which air is forced by pressure.

Blast hole, a hole in the bottom of a pump stock through which water enters.

Blast nozzle, a fixed or variable orifice in the delivery end of a blast pipe; -- called also blast orifice.

In full blast, in complete operation; in a state of great activity. See Blast, n., 2. [Colloq.]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Blast \Blast\, v. i.

1. To be blighted or withered; as, the bud blasted in the blossom.

2. To blow; to blow on a trumpet. [Obs.]

Toke his blake trumpe faste And gan to puffen and to blaste. --Chaucer.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)