Dictionary

blessing

see also: Blessing

Etymology

From Middle English blessinge, blessynge, from Old English blētsung, blēdsung, equivalent to bless + -ing.

Pronunciation

Noun

blessing (plural blessings)

Some kind of divine or supernatural aid, or reward.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XVII, page 28 ↗:
  Henceforth, wherever thou may’st roam,
  ⁠My blessing, like a line of light,
  ⁠Is on the waters day and night,
  And like a beacon guards thee home.
A pronouncement invoking divine aid.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
  Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
Good fortune.
(paganism) A modern pagan ceremony.
The act of declaring or bestowing favor; approval.
We will not proceed without the executive director's blessing.
- 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN:
  Jocasta had my blessing when she seduced you, you stuck-up piffler.
Something someone is glad of.
After two weeks of sun, last night's rainfall was a blessing.
A prayer before a meal; grace.
A group of unicorns.
- 2009, Andrew Orlowski, "Facebook music dashboard: Revenue at last? ↗", The Register, 13 September 2011:
  Then a blessing of unicorns charged into the studio, and I was carried away to be re-educated.