blitz

plural blitzes

1. countableA sudden attack, especially an air raid; usually with reference to the Blitz.
2. countableA swift and overwhelming attack or effort.

   We embarked on a publicity blitz, putting posters and flyers all around town.

   4 more examples

   Ultimately, though, Liverpool had inflicted a grievous result in the first leg when they scored three times in a 19-minute blitz and, importantly, did not concede an away goal.

   2018 April 10, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian

   He [Yoshihide Suga] seems to be counting on a media blitz with feel-good effects around the Games to improve his sagging popularity.

   2021 March 25, Koichi Nakano, “The Olympics Are On! But Why?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Liberal activists promised a well-funded summertime blitz, replete with home-state rallies and million-dollar ad campaigns, to try to ramp up pressure on a handful of Senate Democrats opposed to changing the rules.

   2021 June 22, Nicholas Fandos, “Republicans Block Voting Rights Bill, Dealing Blow to Biden and Democrats”, in The New York Times

   As well as its revamped search bar, Google unveiled a blitz of other innovations that point to the longer-term evolution of the product.

   2025 May 24, Stephen Morris, Melissa Heikkilä, Cristina Criddle, “Defending the high ground”, in FT Weekend (Big Read section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 7

3. countableAmerican footballA play in which additional defenders beyond the defensive linemen rush the passer.
4. abbreviationellipsisuncountableboard gamesEllipsis of blitz chess.

   In order to avoid misunderstanding, I must note that I object to the attempts to displace normal chess with fast play, not rapid or blitz in general. I love them both, and, if I were to choose which to play, classic or rapid, I would choose rapid.

   2015, Mark Dvoretsky, For Friends and Colleagues, volume 2 (Reflections on My Profession)

   1 more example

   What I had played was chess. Specially, I knocked out some 2,000 games of speed (or "blitz") chess in the two months leading up to the tournament. In fact, I played so much that I'm currently in the top half-percent of more than 1.3 million of blitz players at an online chess competition site.

   2013 June 24, Mark Samuelian, “Speed Chess Changed My Brain”, in The Atlantic

5. countableuncountablecookingThe act of blending or puréeing food using a blender or processor.
6. countableuncountablefishingAn occurrence in which large numbers of fish, typically striped bass or bluefish, feed on a school of baitfish, typically one in which the occurrence can be seen from the surface.

present singular third person blitzes · participle present blitzing · participle past blitzed · past blitzed

1. transitiveTo attack quickly or suddenly, as by an air raid or similar action.

   So the question remains — what to do with ignorance, which I must presume is deliberate, as in this media-blitzed era it is not possible to be truly ignorant after age 12.

   1990 February 4, Chrystos, “Headaches And Ruminations”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 9

   Synonyms: charge

2. intransitiveAmerican footballTo perform a blitz.

   The Washington High defense almost always blitzes on third down.

3. transitivecookingTo purée or chop (food products) using a food processor or blender.

   To make nut roast, you have to blitz the nuts in the food processor before adding the parsley and breadcrumbs.

   Synonyms: zhoosh

4. informaltransitiveTo do something quickly or in one session.

   Synonyms: hurry, zoom, fly, scramble, get a move on, hasten, haul, hurtle

1. historicalThe series of air raids launched on various cities in the United Kingdom by the German air force in 1940–41 during World War II.

   Synonyms: Baedeker raids