| English Dictionary |
BLESSED
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does Blessed mean?
• BLESSED (adjective)
The adjective BLESSED has 6 senses:
1. highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace)
2. worthy of worship
3. expletives used informally as intensifiers
4. Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy of veneration
5. enjoying the bliss of heaven
6. characterized by happiness and good fortune
Familiarity information: BLESSED used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace)
Synonyms:
blessed; blest
Context example:
the blessed assurance of a steady income
Similar:
fortunate; golden (supremely favored)
Antonym:
cursed (deserving a curse; sometimes used as an intensifier)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Worthy of worship
Context example:
the Blessed Trinity
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Expletives used informally as intensifiers
Synonyms:
blame; blamed; blasted; blessed; damn; damned; darned; deuced; goddam; goddamn; goddamned; infernal
Context example:
an infernal nuisance
Similar:
cursed; curst (deserving a curse; sometimes used as an intensifier)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy of veneration
Synonyms:
beatified; blessed
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Enjoying the bliss of heaven
Similar:
saved (rescued; especially from the power and consequences of sin)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Characterized by happiness and good fortune
Context example:
a blessed time
Similar:
happy (enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure)
Derivation:
blessedness (a state of supreme happiness)
Context examples
Here you comes and tells me of it plain; and here I let him give us all the slip before my blessed deadlights!
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Peggotty took me in her arms, and blessed and thanked me over and over again for being such a comfort to her (that was what she said) in her distress.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
"Yes, Blessed Wolf," agreed the Judge.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
“We’ll make it, I think; but you can depend upon it that blessed brother of mine has twigged our little game and is just a-humping for us. Ah, look at that!”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
"No, no," he cried, while he secretly blessed her for her kindness.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
"You Wolf, you!" and "You blessed Wolf!" the man and woman called out to him.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
So that, my friend, it will be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Blessed thistle may have anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects.
(Blessed thistle, NCI Dictionary)
A substance found in certain plants, including blessed thistle.
(Cnicin, NCI Dictionary)
“It’s a blessed mystery to me,” cried Pycroft, scratching his head.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"One finger cannot lift a pebble." (Native American proverb, Hopi)
"If you hear a person talking good about things that aren't in you, don't be sure that he wouldn't also say bad things about things that aren't in you." (Arabic proverb)
"With friends like these, who needs enemies?" (Croatian proverb)