different between blast vs flak

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bläst, IPA^(key): /bl??st/
• (US) enPR: bl?st, IPA^(key): /blæst/
• Rhymes: -??st
• Rhymes: -æst

Etymology 1

From Middle English blast from Old English bl?st (“blowing, blast”), from Proto-Germanic *bl?staz, *bl?stuz (“blowing, blast”). Cognate with obsolete German Blast (“wind, blowing”). More at blow.

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

2. A violent gust of wind.

   • And see where surly Winter passes off, / Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; / His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill.

3. A forcible stream of gas or liquid from an orifice, for example from a bellows, the mouth, etc.
4. A hit from a pipe.
5. The continuous blowing to which one charge of ore or metal is subjected in a furnace

   many tons of iron were melted at a blast

   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 146:

     Blast was produced by bellows worked by four 'blowers', three of whom worked at a time while the fourth stood ready to replace one of the others.

6. The exhaust steam from an engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.
7. An explosion, especially for the purpose of destroying a mass of rock, etc.
8. An explosive charge for blasting.
   • 1852-1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts

     Large blasts are often used.

9. A loud, sudden sound.
   • c. 1832, William Cullen Bryant, The Battle-Field

     the blast of triumph o'er thy grave
10. A sudden, pernicious effect, as if by a noxious wind, especially on animals and plants; a blight.

    • By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
11. (figuratively, informal) A good time; an enjoyable moment.

    We had a blast at the party last night.

12. (marketing) A promotional message sent to an entire mailing list.

    an e-mail blast; a fax blast

13. A flatulent disease of sheep.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blasten, blesten, from Old English bl?stan (“to blow, blast”), from Proto-Germanic *bl?stijan?. Compare Middle High German blesten (“to stand out, plop, splash”).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (transitive) To make an impression on, by making a loud blast or din.
2. (intransitive) To make a loud noise.
3. (transitive) To shatter, as if by an explosion.
4. (transitive) To open up a hole in, usually by means of a sudden and imprecise method (such as an explosion).

   Blast right through it.

5. (transitive) To curse; to damn.

   Blast it! Foiled again.

6. (transitive) (sci-fi) To shoot, especially with an energy weapon (as opposed to one which fires projectiles).

   Chewbacca blasted the Stormtroopers with his laser rifle.

7. (soccer) To shoot; kick the ball in hope of scoring a goal.
8. To criticize or reprimand severely; to verbally discipline or punish.

   My manager suddenly blasted me yesterday for being a little late to work for five days in a row, because I was never getting myself up on time.

9. (transitive) To bring destruction or ruin on; to destroy.
10. (transitive) To blight or wither.

    A cold wind blasted the rose plants.

11. (intransitive, obsolete) To be blighted or withered.

    The bud blasted in the blossom.

12. (intransitive, obsolete) To blow, for example on a trumpet.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Italian: blastare

Translations

Interjection

blast

1. (chiefly British, informal) To show displeasure or disappointment; damn

Usage notes

Can be used on its own or in the form "blast it!".

Translations

Etymology 3

From Ancient Greek ??????? (blastós, “germ or sprout”).

Noun

blast (plural blasts)

1. (cytology) An immature or undifferentiated cell (e.g., lymphoblast, myeloblast).

Derived terms

• blast cell
• blastocyte
• blastoma

Translations

Etymology 4

From BLAST (an acronym for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).

Verb

blast (third-person singular simple present blasts, present participle blasting, simple past and past participle blasted)

1. (biology, informal, transitive) To run a nucleotide sequence (for nucleic acids) or an amino acid sequence (for proteins) through a BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool).
   • 2004, Andreas Bommarius and Bettina Riebel-Bommarius, Biocatalysis: Fundamentals and Applications, p. 425:

     Blasting nucleotide sequences is not always that easy, because there is more ambiguity to the nucleotide sequence, and good hits have to have a 70% homology over the whole sequence to be reliable, compared to 25% with proteins.

Alternative forms

• BLAST

Anagrams

• Balts, blats

German

Verb

blast

1. inflection of blasen:
   1. second-person plural present
   2. plural imperative

Irish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (blastós, “germ, sprout”).

Noun

blast m (genitive singular blast, nominative plural blastaí)

1. (cytology) blast

Declension

Derived terms

• -blast
• blastchill (“blast cell”)

Mutation

Middle English

Alternative forms

• blaste, blæst, blest

Etymology

From Old English bl?st, from Proto-Germanic *bl?stuz; equivalent to blasen +? -th.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blast/, /bl??st/

Noun

blast (plural blastes)

1. A blast; a sudden and forceful motion of wind.
2. One's breathing or respiring; the act of respiration.
3. The blast produced by a musical instrument.
4. An emission or expulsion of fire or flames.
5. The sound produced by thunder or storms.
6. (rare) The making of a pronouncement or proclamation.
7. (rare) One's spiritual essence; the soul.
8. (rare) A striking or attack.
9. (rare) Flatulence; the making of a fart.

Derived terms

• blasten

Descendants

• English: blast
• Scots: blast

References

• “blast, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-27.

Swedish

Noun

blast c (definite form blasten)

1. (uncountable) The stem and leaves of a vegetable, of which you're only supposed to eat the root. E.g. in potatoes or carrots.

English

Alternative forms

• flack (adverse criticism and spokesperson senses)

Etymology

Borrowed from German FlaK, short for Fliegerabwehrkanone (“anti aeroplane cannon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flæk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: flack

Noun

flak (countable and uncountable, plural flaks)

1. Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells. [from 1938]

   Synonyms: ack-ack, AAA, triple-A

   • 1964, David John Cawdell Irving, The Destruction of Dresden, page 74,

     […] to consider whether the city was in February 1945 an undefended city within the meaning of the 1907 Hague Convention, it will be necessary to examine the establishment and subsequent total dispersal of the city's flak batteries, before the date of the triple blow.

   • 2007, Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944, footnote, page 30,

     He was promoted to general of flak artillery on March 1, 1945, and ended the war as the general of the flak arm at OKL, the High Command of the Luftwaffe.

2. Anti-aircraft shell fire. [from 1940]

   Synonym: ack-ack

   • 1943 November 29, Target: Germany, in Life, page 80,

     At 1057 we were just over the islands and at 1100 the tail gunner reported flak at six o'clock, below.

   • 1984, Steve Harris, "Aces High", Iron Maiden, Powerslave.

   • 1999, Brian O'Neill, Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer, page 118,

     I could hear the fragments from the flak shells hitting the plane like someone throwing rocks at it.

3. (figuratively, informal) Adverse criticism. [from 1963]
   • 1990, Joel H. Spring, The American School, 1642-1990, page 380,

     This filter Herman and Chomsky call “flak,” which refers to letters, speeches, phone calls, and other forms of group and individual complaints. Advertisers and broadcasters avoid programming content that might cause large volumes of flak.
4. (informal) A public-relations spokesperson.
   • 2006, Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, A Propaganda Model, in 2006 [2001], Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner (editors), Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, revised edition, page 277,

     AIM head, Reed Irvine's diatribes are frequently published, and right-wing network flaks who regularly assail the “liberal media,” such as Michael Ledeen, are given Op-ed column space, sympathetic reviews, and a regular place on talk shows as experts.

Translations

See also

• flak jacket

Anagrams

• KLFA, falk

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *awa-laka, from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“to jump, scuttle”) (compare Norwegian lakka (“to hop, patter about”), Latvian lèkt (“to spring, jump”), Ancient Greek ????? (l?ká?, “to dance to music”).

Verb

flak (first-person singular past tense flaka, participle flakur)

1. to throw, hurl, toss, fling off
2. to smack
3. (figuratively) to cast off, eject
4. (figuratively) to renounce, reject

Related terms

• fletë

References

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed through German flach (“flat”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla?k/
• Rhymes: -a?k

Noun

flak n (genitive singular flaks, nominative plural flök)

1. wreck
2. filet, (UK) fillet (of fish)

Declension

Synonyms

• (wreck): rekald n
• (a fish fillet): flak af fiski n

Derived terms

• flaka

See also

• lundir (of beef etc.)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse flaga, flak

Noun

flak n (definite singular flaket, indefinite plural flak, definite plural flaka or flakene)

1. a flake
2. floe (of ice)
3. tail (of a garment; coat tail, shirt tail)

Derived terms

• isflak

References

• “flak” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “flak_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “flak_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse flaga, flak. Akin to English flake.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl??k/

Noun

flak n (definite singular flaket, indefinite plural flak, definite plural flaka)

1. a flake
2. floe (of ice)
3. tail (of a garment; coat tail, shirt tail)

Derived terms

• isflak
• snøflak

References

• “flak” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Plautdietsch

Adjective

flak

1. shallow (not deep)

Polish

Etymology

From Middle High German vlëcke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flak/

Noun

flak m inan

1. sausage casing made from animal intestine
2. (informal) flat tire
3. (colloquial) innard, entrail

Declension

Related terms

• flaki

Further reading

• flak in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed through German flach (“flat”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

Noun

flak n

1. a flat object, a floe, a flatbed
2. a bed, the (open) cargo area of a vehicle (e.g. truck, lorry, pickup truck, dump truck, tip truck)

Declension

Related terms

• flakbil
• flakcykel
• flakmoped
• isflak
• lastbilsflak
• tippflak

Anagrams

• falk