To consecrate or set apart to holy or sacred purposes; make or pronounce holy: formerly occasionally used of persons.
To consecrate (a thing) by a religious rite, as with prayer and thanksgiving; consecrate or hallow by asking God's blessing on: as, to bless food.
To sanctify (one's self) by making the sign of the cross, especially as a defense against evil influences or agencies: used reflexively.
To defend; preserve; protect or guard from evil; reflexively, to guard one's self from; avoid; eschew.
To invoke or pronounce a blessing upon (another or others); commend to God's favor or protection.
To confer well-being upon; bestow happiness, prosperity, or good of any kind upon; make happy, prosperous, or fortunate; prosper with temporal or spiritual benefits: as, a nation blessed with peace and plenty.
To favor (with); make happy or fortunate by some specified means: as, blessed with a good constitution; blessed with filial children.
To praise or extol as holy or worthy of reverence, or
as the giver of benefits; extol or glorify with thankful acknowledgment of benefits received.
To esteem or account happy; congratulate; felicitate: used reflexively.
[Often used in exclamations with various shades of meaning departing more or less widely from the literal sense: as, God bless me! bless you! bless the mark! etc.]
To ejaculate “Bless me,” “God bless me,” or the like.
To wound; hurt; beat; thump.
[Appar. a deflection of sense Some fancy that it refers to “the old rite of blessing a field by directing the hands to all parts of it” (see bless).] To wave; brandish.