verb / interjection
bless
BLESS/bles/
To confer or invoke favor and protection.
The minister blesses the person with a raised hand.
Etymology
Old English bletsian meant to make holy through a rite, originally involving sprinkling blood on pagan altars. This ritual meaning broadened into invoking divine favor or protection.
In context
… God we ask you to bless them and multiply them and increase them in every way …
More examples
- The valley is blessed with fertile soil.
- The board blesses the revised proposal.
- She blesses the stranger who returned her lost bag.
- “Bless you,” he says when she sneezes.
Forms
bless · blesses · blessed · blest · blessing
blessing noun — A wish or act of divine favor.
Similar words
- consecrate
- Makes or declares something sacred.
- sanctify
- Makes holy or treats as holy.