bless
part of speech
verb (bless, blesses, blessed or blest, blessing)
meaning for a pupil
1) To bless means to ask God to protect someone or something or bring them good, often by a priest or religious leader. tree →
2) «Bless you!» is what people say when someone sneezes. tree →
3) To be blessed with something means to be lucky to have it («blessed with good health»). tree →
4) «Bless him/her» or «bless» is said (mainly UK) to show love or sympathy for someone small or sweet. tree →
sense in the lessons
In RE, blessings are part of many religions' ceremonies (weddings, naming of babies, harvest). In everyday manners «Bless you!» after a sneeze is polite. In stories a character may be blessed with a gift or bless a journey. Phrases: «bless you», «God bless», «blessed with», «a blessing in disguise».
examples
- «Atchoo!» «Bless you!» tree →
- The priest blessed the new baby. tree →
- We are blessed with lovely neighbours. tree →
- Grandma always says «God bless» at bedtime. tree →
- Oh, bless him, he's fallen asleep in his dinner. tree →
- The vicar blessed the animals at the pet service. tree →
- Losing the match was a blessing in disguise; we trained harder. tree →
- The rain was a blessing for the dry farms. tree →
note
Past «blessed» (said «blest» as a verb); as an adjective «blessed» is often said BLESS-id («a blessed day»). Noun «blessing». «A blessing in disguise» means something that seemed bad but turned out good.
In the corpora
- The Rat: «That's all right, bless you!
- She laughs: «Bless the animal ...
- In English-speaking countries people often say «bless you» after a sneeze, and the person says «thank you».
- When someone sneezes, many people in English-speaking countries say "Bless you".
- Liam whispered «Bless me, Father, for I have sinned» and told the priest about the name.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «bless» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.