different between blee vs blem

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bli?/
• Rhymes: -i?

Etymology 1

From Middle English blee, ble (“colour, hue”), from Old English bl?o, bleoh (“colour, hue; complexion, form, blue”), from Proto-West Germanic *bl?u (“colour, blee; glad, light”). Cognate with Scots ble, blee, blie (“colour, complexion”), Old Frisian bl?, blie (“colour, hue; complexion”) (whence North Frisian bläy), Old Saxon bl? (“colour, hue; complexion”), Old High German bl?o(h) (“colour, hue”), bl?o (“metallic lead”) (modern German Blei), Danish bly (“lead”), Icelandic blý (“lead”). Perhaps related to Old English bl?þe (“joyous”) (whence blithe). See also bly.

Noun

blee (countable and uncountable, plural blees)

1. (rare, chiefly poetic) Colour, hue. [from 9th to early 17th c.]
   • 1893, "A Story of Mothering Sunday.", in The Sunday at Home, vol. 40, Religious Tract Society, page 381.

   • 1896, Emily Henrietta Hickey, "The Ship from Tirnanoge", in Poems by Emily Hickley, page 48.

   • 1913, Francis Thompson, "Stolen Fruit of Eden-Tree (‘The Schoolmaster for God’)", in Brigid M. Boardman (ed.), The Poems of Francis Thompson: A New Edition, Continuum, 2001, lines 59 to 64.
2. (archaic) Colour of the face, complexion, colouring. [from 9th to early 17th c.]
   • "The Felon Sow of Rokeby and the Freers of Richmond", in Christopher Clarkson, The History of Richmond, in the County of York, Thomas Bowman (publ., 1821, appendix, cvii.

   • "The Gay Goss-hawk", The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott: first series, containing Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Sir Tristrem, and Dramatic Pieces, Baudry's European Library (publ.), 1838, page 189 (glossed as “bloom”).

   • 1927, P. Geyl (tr.), The Tale of Beatrice, Martinus Nijhoff (publ.), page 5.

3. (archaic) Consistency, form, texture. [from 9th to early 17th c.]
4. (East Anglia) General resemblance, likeness; appearance, aspect, look.
   • 16th c., Nicholas Grimald, The life and poems of Nicholas Grimald, Yale Studies in English, Volume 69, 1925, page 379.

Synonyms

• color, colour
• hue
• complexion

Related terms

• bly

Translations

Etymology 2

Associated with Smash Hits magazine, where it may have originated.

Interjection

blee

1. (informal) Expressing disgust or trepidation.
   • 1988, Sinclair User (issue 79)

     Bikers […] tend to appear at the edges of the road and then zoom in front of your car. […] As you have probably found out already, one touch of these and it's time to order the wooden box. (Blee!)

   • 1991, Nick Roberts, Cavemania (video game review) in Crash (issue 87, page 47)

     It's a boring life being a cave man. No telly, no video and not even a Spectrum! Blee! All you can do is eat, but Brontosaurus steaks can be very tough.

Anagrams

• Ebel, Eble, Elbe, beel, bélé

Nafaanra

Noun

blee

1. night

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

blem (comparative more blem, superlative most blem)

1. Abbreviation of blemished sometimes used on online auction sites

Noun

blem (plural blems)

1. (informal) A blemished item.
   • 1997, Michael I. Niman, People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia (page 6)

     They're all blems. They're from the dumpster behind an apple-waxing plant in Washington State.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bl?m]

Noun

blem (countable and uncountable, plural blems)

1. (MLE) A cigarette, spliff or another intoxicant preparation for smoking.

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bl?m]

Verb

blem (third-person singular simple present blems, present participle blemming, simple past and past participle blemmed)

1. (slang, MLE, regional African-American Vernacular) Alternative form of blam (“to shoot”)

Anagrams

• Melb