blazer

plural blazers

1. A thing which blazes or shines brightly.
   1. informalA very bright or hot day.

      The day comes—a blazer, cloudless blue, not a breath stirring the pine-branches; […]

      1875, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], chapter III, in Hostages to Fortune […], volume I, London: John Maxwell and Co. […], →OCLC, page 88

   2. CanadaUScookingA dish used to cook directly over the coals of a brazier, or the flame of a chafing dish lamp.

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      [I]t was evident to him that Mrs. Nichols in branching out did not intend to banish the Welsh rarebit, the oysters in cream, and other delicacies which Tom prided himself on being able to prepare on a blazer so skilfully that the mouths of his friends never ceased to water until the alcohol-lamp went hopelessly out.

      1895, Robert Grant, “By Hook or Crook. Chapter I.”, in The Bachelor’s Christmas and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 260

   3. Northern EnglandA flat metal piece placed against a fire grate to cause the fire to blaze by creating a draught; a blower.

      From the neighbouring colleries the miners had come in crowds—men, women, and children. The women and children were many of them armed with "blazers" and tin-cans, which they used as cymbals, to the accompaniment of groans, yells, and howls directed against the motley gang of evictors.

      a. 1923 (date written), Thomas Burt, Aaron Watson, “The Last Strike on the Old Pattern”, in Thomas Burt […]: An Autobiography […], London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin […], published 1924, →OCLC, page 177

   4. obsoleteA comet.
2. figurativelyA tailored jacket, cut like a suit jacket but worn without matching trousers or skirt, and either in a solid colour (especially navy, often with metal, crested, or otherwise contrasting buttons), or in the colours/stripes and often with the badge on the breast pocket of a school, club, or team, whose membership it signals.

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   Rowing is, in truth, second to none among our national athletic diversions, and Henley Regatta is the chief rowing tournament of the year. […] [T]he visitors' cup of enjoyment can hardly be fuller. The drive to the river, the gentle pull down stream, or the tow up to the famous reach; the pic-nic upon the bank; the boats loaded with women in faintly tinted summery dresses and men in spotless flannel and club-"blazers" in every combination of colour, only to be unriddled by the initiated; […]

   1880 June 19, “[Untitled]”, in The Times, number 29,912, London: Francis Goodlake, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11, column 6

   In your article of to-day, under the above heading, you speak of "a striped red and black blazer," "the blazer," also of "the pale toned" ones. This is worth noting as a case of the specific becoming the generic. A blazer is the red flannel boating jacket, worn by the Lady Margaret, St. John's College, Cambridge, Boat Club. When I was at Cambridge it meant that and nothing else. It seems from your article that a blazer now means a coloured flannel jacket, whether for cricket, tennis, boating, or seaside wear.

   1889 August 20 (date written), Walter Wren, “Dress by the sea”, in John Richard Robinson, editor, The Daily News, number 13,534, London: Thomas Britton, published 22 August 1889, →OCLC, page 6, column 6

   More does he wonder still at the city clerk in a blazer, who has two weeks' holiday in the year and, apparently, unlimited money, which he earns in the easiest possible way by 'sitting at a desk and writing.' […] The blazer and the town-made gown are innocent recruiting sergeants for the city brigades; and since one man's profession is ever a mystery to his fellow, blazer and gown believe that the farmer must be happy and content.

   1892 (date written), Rudyard Kipling, “[From Tideway to Tideway.] One One Side Only.”, in Letters of Travel (1892–1913), London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1920, →OCLC, page 93

   1. figurativelyAny suit-style jacket for women.
   2. UKfigurativelyslangAn older member of a sports club, often with conservative or old-fashioned views.
3. figurativelyA person or thing that blazes a trail; a pioneer, a trailblazer.

   a blazer of paths

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   a blazer of pathways

   […] I must say that I came to regard him as certainly one of the greatest leaders in education that we have ever had in this country. He not only was a very able man, a blazer of pathways, but he was a great orator.

   1938, National Association of State Universities, Transactions and Proceedings of the National Association of State Universities in the United States of America, volumes 36–38, page 247

   [F]reedom, a blazer of paths to essentials. Musing about the lack of luggage and planning on their trip, she reflects: [blockquote] After the cumbrances of a lifetime I found this pared simplicity singularly pleasing.

   1973, Jean Marie Ackermann, Outside in India: How Western Characters are Perceived in Writings of Kamala Markandaya and R[uth] Prawer Jhabvala (graduate thesis), Claremont Graduate School, page 106

4. figurativelyslangOften in the form run a blazer: a con, a swindle.

   These folks don't take kindly to no brash stranger comin' in here tryin' to run a blazer on 'em.

   1954, Louis L’Amour, chapter 3, in Utah Blaine, London: Universal-Tandem Publishing, published May 1975, →ISBN, page 25

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   The disfigurement was so plainly obvious that it seemed evident the rustlers planned to run a blazer on us by undertaking to cut them [cattle] on the spring round-up under cover of a gun bluff.

   1908, Edgar Beecher Bronson, “Wintering among Rustlers”, in Reminiscences of a Ranchman, New York, N.Y.: The McClure Company, →OCLC, pages 115–116

   "What'd I tell you?" said Bill. "The old wolverine was tryin' to run a blazer on us. All he needed was to be showed we meant business. And he can't make no trouble for us when he gets out, 'cause our two words are better'n his."

   1914 October 1, A[rthur] M[urray] Chisholm, “A Thousand a Plate. Chapter II.”, in Charles Agnew MacLean, editor, The Popular Magazine, volume XXXIII, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Street & Smith, →OCLC, page 109, column 2

   Bad, he doubtless was. But when he tried to run a blazer on this grim little cowman, [John Horton] Slaughter had run him.

   1945, Eugene Cunningham, “Sheriff of Cochise: John Slaughter”, in Triggernometry: A Gallery of Gunfighters […], Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, →ISBN, page 298

5. USfigurativelySomeone or something that draws attention.

   T' other gal is likely enough, but the mother's a blazer! Whoever marries Emmy, had better look out for his ears. The mill-clack is nothing to the old woman's tongue.

   1846, C[aroline] M[athilda Stansbury] Kirkland, “Ambuscades”, in Western Clearings (Wiley and Putnam’s Library of American Books), New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 127

6. USfigurativelyslangOne who blazes (“smokes marijuana”); a stoner.

plural blazers

1. archaicobsoleteOne who blazes (“announces or proclaims something publicly”); an announcer, a herald, a proclaimer.

   To have their blazers abroad to ſee out their virtues, and to prepare their friends in every Province.

   a. 1619 (date written), Walter Raleigh, “A Method How to Make Use of the Book before, in the Reading of the Storie. Observations. Ways of Such as Aspire to the Kingdome, & Marks to Discern Them.”, in Remains of Sir Walter Raleigh; […], London: […] William Sheares […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 74

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   VVithin the Barbican a Porter ſate, / Day and night duely keeping vvatch and vvard, / Nor vvight, nor vvord mote paſſe out of the gate, / But in good order, and vvith devv regard; / Vtterers of ſecrets he from thence debard, / Bablers of folly, and blazers of cryme.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25, page 314

plural blazers

1. obsoletegovernmentSynonym of blazoner (“one who blazons (“describes”) coats of arms; a herald”).

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   But now it is tyme to come to the auncient Poets, which were alſo Philoſophers, and who by their feynings opened the gap to the pluralitie of Gods. Amang theſe the firſt that wee méete with is Orpheus, whom Iuſtine calleth the firſt Author of them, the firſt giuer of names vnto them, and the firſt blazer of their Pedegrées.

   1587, Philip of Mornay [i.e., Philippe de Mornay], “That the Wisdome of the World hath Acknowledged One Onely God”, in Philip Sidney, Arthur Golding, transl., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, […], London: […] [John Charlewood and] George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 39

   Synonyms: blazoner

plural Blazers

1. A surname.