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rcise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government. Power is no blessing in itself but when it is employed to protect the innocent. Swift.

especially newspapers or the persons employed in writing for them; as, a free press is a blessing, a licentious press is a curse.

rgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction. The primer, or office of the Blessed Virgin. Bp. Stillingfleet.

Consisting in the absence of something; not positive; negative. Privative blessings, blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty, and integrity. Jer. Taylor.

he book to be a libel; he pronounced the act to be a fraud. The God who hallowed thee and blessed, Pronouncing thee all good. Keble.

Indeed; forsooth. To affront the blessed hillside drabs and thieves With mended morals, quotha, -- fine new lives ! Mrs. Browning.

e; to tell or narrate the particulars of; to rehearse; to enumerate; as, to recount one's blessings. Dryden. To all his angels, who, with true applause, Recount his praises. Milton.

ensable. God, on his part, has declared the requisites on ours; what we must do to obtain blessings, is the great business of us all to know. Wake.

To cut off; to abrogate; to annul. The blessed Jesus . . . did sacramentally rescind the impure relics of Adam and the contraction of evil customs. Jer. Taylor.

e have, Gazed on too long, resumes the light he gave. Denham. Perhaps God will resume the blessing he has bestowed ere he attains the age of manhood. Sir W. Scott.

The act or conduct of one who is righteous. Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth right at all times. Ps. cvi. 3.

To sanctify; to bless so as to protect from evil influence. [R.] Sir W. Scott.

One of the blessed in heaven. Then shall thy saints, unmixed, and from the impure Far separate, circling thy holy mount, Unfeigned hallelujahs to thee sing. Milton.

set apart to a holy or religious use; to consecrate by appropriate rites; to hallow. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Gen. ii. 3. Moses . . . sanctified Aaron and his garnment. Lev. viii. 30.

To utter sighs over; to lament or mourn over. Ages to come, and men unborn, Shall bless her name, and sigh her fate. Pior.

Happy; fortunate; blessed. [Obs.] Chaucer.

ubsequently to; after; -- usually with a past event or time for the object. The Lord hath blessed thee, since my coming. Gen. xxx. 30. I have a model by which he build a nobler poem than any extant since the ancients. Dryden.

Hence, unmarried; as, a single man or woman. Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. Shak. Single chose to live, and shunned to wed. Dryden.

tions, or truth of God. Let no . . . secret skepticism lead any one to doubt whether this blessed prospect will be realized. S. Miller.

minded; -- opposed to carnal. That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift. Rom. i. ll. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Eph. i. 3. If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one. Gal. vi. 1.