blesse

Verb

bless (third-person singular simple present blesses, present participle blessing, simple past and past participle blest or blessed)

1. To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify.
2. To invoke divine favor upon.
   • In some countries, priests bless farm animals on St. Anthony's Day.
3. To honor as holy, glorify; to extol for excellence.
   • A Pſalme of Dauid. Bleſſe the Lord, O my ſoule: and all that is within me, bleſſe his holy Name.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 103:1, column 2
4. To esteem or account happy; to felicitate.
   • And thou ſhalt ſweare, The Lord liueth, in Trueth, in Iudgement, and in Righteouſnes, and the nations ſhall bleſſe themſelues in him, and in him ſhall they glorie.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 4:2, column 1
5. To make the sign of the cross upon, so as to sanctify.
   • the archbishop vsing certeine praiers, blessed the king1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC
6. (obsolete) To wave; to brandish.
   • And burning blades about their heads do blesse.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6

See all 13 meanings of bless