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BLESSED
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Expletives used informally as intensifiers
Example:
an infernal nuisance
Synonyms:
blame; blamed; blasted; blessed; damn; damned; darned; deuced; goddam; goddamn; goddamned; infernal
Classified under:
Similar:
cursed; curst (deserving a curse; sometimes used as an intensifier)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Highly favored or fortunate (as e.g. by divine grace)
Example:
the blessed assurance of a steady income
Synonyms:
blessed; blest
Classified under:
Similar:
fortunate; golden (supremely favored)
Antonym:
cursed (deserving a curse; sometimes used as an intensifier)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Characterized by happiness and good fortune
Example:
a blessed time
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
happy (enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure)
Derivation:
blessedness (a state of supreme happiness)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Enjoying the bliss of heaven
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
saved (rescued; especially from the power and consequences of sin)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy of veneration
Synonyms:
beatified; blessed
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Worthy of worship
Example:
the Blessed Trinity
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
holy (belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb bless
Context examples:
She saw it all with a clearness which had never blessed her before.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
“Wine for the lady, squire! The blessed hour of sight hath passed.”
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Very true indeed, my dears, but you are blessed with wonderful memories, and your poor cousin has probably none at all.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Laurie was growing more serious, strong, and firm, and both were learning that beauty, youth, good fortune, even love itself, cannot keep care and pain, loss and sorrow, from the most blessed for ...
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Well, I’m blessed if it isn’t Boy Jim!
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Oh! Lizzy, why am I thus singled from my family, and blessed above them all! If I could but see you as happy! If there were but such another man for you!”
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Half an hour passed away, and the favourable symptom yet blessed her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I have always been blessed with excellent health, and no climate disagrees with me.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
We are blessed, my dear Challenger, above all zoologists since the world began!
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Also called blessed thistle, holy thistle, spotted thistle, and St. Benedict's thistle.
(Cardin, NCI Dictionary)
