a. 1. Hallowed; consecrated; worthy of blessing or adoration; heavenly; holy. [ 1913 Webster ]

O, run; prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Enjoying happiness or bliss; favored with blessings; happy; highly favored. [ 1913 Webster ]

All generations shall call me blessed. Luke i. 48. [ 1913 Webster ]

Towards England's blessed shore. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Imparting happiness or bliss; fraught with happiness; blissful; joyful. “Then was a blessed time.” “So blessed a disposition.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Enjoying, or pertaining to, spiritual happiness, or heavenly felicity; as, the blessed in heaven. [ 1913 Webster ]

Reverenced like a blessed saint. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cast out from God and blessed vision. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (R. C. Ch.) Beatified. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Used euphemistically, ironically, or intensively. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not a blessed man came to set her [ a boat ] free. R. D. Blackmore. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Happily; fortunately; joyfully. [ 1913 Webster ]

We shall blessedly meet again never to depart. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being blessed; happiness; felicity; bliss; heavenly joys; the favor of God. [ 1913 Webster ]

The assurance of a future blessedness. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Single blessedness, the unmarried state. “Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Delight; beatitude; ecstasy. See Happiness. [ 1913 Webster ]

See under Thistle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who blesses; one who bestows or invokes a blessing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A partner in a lease taken. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. gentilesse, gentelise, F. gentillesse. See Gentle. a. ] Gentleness; courtesy; kindness; nobility. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Gentilesse; gentleness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. ] Humbleness; abasement; low obeisance. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. Idleness. [ Archaic ] “In ydlesse.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

And an idlesse all the day
Beside a wandering stream. Mrs. Browning. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Coulisse. ] (Arch.) (a) A gutter, groove, or channel. (b) A hipped roof. [ Prov. Eng. ] Parker. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. laissé, p. p. of laisser. See Lease, v. t. ] (Law) The person to whom a lease is given, or who takes an estate by lease. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Lessened p. pr. & vb. n. Lessening. ] [ From Less, a. ] To make less; to reduce; to make smaller, or fewer; to diminish; to lower; to degrade; as, to lessen a kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. [ 1913 Webster ]

Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment. Calamy. [ 1913 Webster ]

St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury.

Syn. -- To diminish; reduce; abate; decrease; lower; impair; weaken; degrade. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To become less; to shrink; to contract; to decrease; to be diminished; as, the apparent magnitude of objects lessens as we recede from them; his care, or his wealth, lessened. [ 1913 Webster ]

The objection lessens much, and comes to no more than this: there was one witness of no good reputation. Atterbury. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, lessens. [ 1913 Webster ]

His wife . . . is the lessener of his pain, and the augmenter of his pleasure. J. Rogers (1839). [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. becoming less in dimension or degree; as, the lessening distance between us. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. a change downward; a decrease; a reduction.
Syn. -- decrease, drop-off. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ This word is formed by adding anew the compar. suffix -er (in which r is from an original s) to less. See Less, a. ] Less; smaller; inferior. [ 1913 Webster ]

God made . . . the lesser light to rule the night. Gen. i. 15. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Lesser is used for less, now the compar. of little, in certain special instances in which its employment has become established by custom; as, Lesser Asia (i. e., Asia Minor), the lesser light, and some others; also in poetry, for the sake of the meter, and in prose where its use renders the passage more euphonious. [ 1913 Webster ]

The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The larger here, and there the lesser lambs. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

By the same reason may a man, in the state of nature, punish the lesser breaches of the law. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Less. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ F. laissées, from laisser to leave. See Lease, v. t. ] The leavings or dung of beasts. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ F. noblesse. See Noble. ] 1. Dignity; greatness; noble birth or condition. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. Spenser. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The nobility; persons of noble rank collectively, including males and females. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To release. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Releasee. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a trade name for a fat substitute prepared as microparticles of protein from whey. It has little fat, but has a consistency and taste resembling fat, and is thus used to prepare foods low in fat for dietetic purposes. [ Trade name ] [ PJC ]

n. A holder of a sublease. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ Pref. un- not + blessed, blest. ] Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. “Unblessed enchanter.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]