Home US English blazon

Definition of blazon in English:

blazon

Pronunciation /ˈblāz(ə)n/ /ˈbleɪz(ə)n/

See synonyms for blazon

Translate blazon into Spanish

transitive verb

[with object]

  • 1with adverbial of place Display prominently or vividly.

    ‘they saw their company name blazoned all over the media’
    • ‘The most majestic works here are his paintings of mountains with words blazoned across them, like the hillside behind the Hollywood sign (which he could see from his studio).’
    • ‘The title from the original play, though, won out, and The Children's Hour, with Lillian Hellman's name blazoned across the ‘based on’ screen credit, was released in 1961.’
    • ‘A futuristic yellow ‘He’ is blazoned distractingly across her chest.’
    • ‘Somehow you get the feeling that if this had been run by men, the names of the founders and subsequent dignitaries would have been blazoned all over its history.’
    • ‘The names of the Americans are then blazoned across the screen.’
    • ‘Now it appears that through either an error or otherwise, that this whistleblower that resides in a very small town has received a document that had blazoned across it an envelope that specifically pointed to him being the whistleblower.’
    • ‘Howard Dean, Wesley Clark and now Kerry, with his long string of victories, have seen their faces blazoned across news-magazine covers.’
    • ‘In contrast to Keiley, whose directorial stamp is blazoned on her productions as plainly as a Nike logo, Irvine's effect is more elusive.’
    • ‘On the wall behind the head are blazoned in vast letters and four languages words that now seem further than ever from reality, ‘Workers of the world, unite’.’
    • ‘I have to confess to a moment of carelessness due largely to the CD labelling which blazons only the two major works.’
    • ‘If these symbols were written by hand, and not stamped out by computer and blazoned into the controls as they were on the Ascalon, then the newly found markings could conceivably have been done by a hand less steady or confident than normal.’
    • ‘I thrust again at the female and almost lose my weapon as she makes a grab for it, the fizzing flame throwing lurid patterns of light across the designs blazoned onto the surface of the tower.’
    • ‘Her matted hair scraped her shoulders as it played in midair, and accentuated a dark crimson handprint blazoned across her shoulder and neck.’
    • ‘The sky was a bright clear blue, blazoned with sunbeams and dashed with the occasional puff of cloud.’
    • ‘The sun set a blazoned flag of red and gold across the sky.’
    • ‘Instead of the horrendous front pages of last week, full of trauma, assault, and invasion of privacy, today's paper was blazoned with four articles I was interested in.’
    • ‘The paired subjects were given various flashcards, blazoned with a star, a crescent, a box, a circle; then separated and asked to concentrate on the identity of the card their opposite number held.’
    • ‘On it was blazoned the news that the Krankies were coming to Scarborough for the summer.’
    • ‘It has every right to be blazoned all over news sites, personal sites, but is not really suitable for sites devoted to light entertainment.’
    display, exhibit, show, put on display, draw attention to, present, spread, emblazon, plaster, flaunt, parade, reveal
    View synonyms
    1. 1.1Report (news), especially in a sensational manner.
      ‘accounts of their ordeal blazoned to the entire nation’
      • ‘Predictably, the New York Times has enhanced these efforts by blazoning them on Page One.’
      • ‘Editors who blazon every rumour on their front pages, politicians who hold weekly press conferences on ‘international threat levels’ and policemen who boast their tally of menaces averted are the arms salesmen of terror.’
      • ‘Newspapers still blazoned headlines on the catastrophe, and articles described the bombing as the work of one man.’
      • ‘At the time of ‘the greatest manhunt in history’ Galt saw his name blazoned in banner headlines.’
      • ‘They do not want to see their names blazoned across the papers because they were out there protecting us.’
      • ‘The story was blazoned over front pages, complete with photos of Michelle, just as the government was about to launch its campaign to reassure young women of confidentiality over contraception or abortion help.’
      • ‘This month the subject was blazoned across the covers of such disparate magazines as U.S. News and World Report, Tikkun, Commentary, and Foreign Policy.’
      publicize, make known, make public, bring to public attention, bring to public notice, announce, report, communicate, impart, disclose, reveal, divulge, leak, publish, broadcast, transmit, issue, post, put out, distribute, spread, unfold, disseminate, circulate, air, herald, trumpet, advertise, proclaim, promulgate
      View synonyms

  • 2Heraldry
    Describe or depict (armorial bearings) in a correct heraldic manner.

    ‘The badge for it is blazoned: Per pale sable and argent, three wolf's teeth issuant from dexter and as many from sinister counterchanged.’
    • ‘Brunâtre can be seen in the brown lion rampant in the arms of Simón Bolívar, and is blazoned "Braun" in German heraldry.’
    • ‘This design is blazoned as ‘Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or,’ and it is still the coat of arms of England today.’
    • ‘With the exception of the arms of the two queens, Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor of Castile, which appear impaled with the English royal arms on the Heralds' Roll, the early rolls never blazon the arms of women.’
    • ‘This coat of arms is blazoned as: Argent on a pale between two fleurs-de-lis gules a cross of the field.’
    1. 2.1Inscribe or paint (an object) with arms or a name.
      ‘At Fonthill the crest and the thirty-six quarterings of Beckford's full coat-of-arms were blazoned on the carpets and painted glass windows.’
      • ‘He touched the entwined dragons that were blazoned onto his skin.’
      • ‘Why would an occasional fisherman say this of a boat that a well-meaning NGO - its name blazoned on the side of the boat - gave him a few months ago?’
      • ‘This private altarpiece says little for the modesty of the canon, whose coat-of-arms with a hare is blazoned at the hem of the Virgin's robe in the corner of the picture.’
      • ‘After all I had the Times logo blazoned all over the sides of my vehicle and it was an Astra.’
      • ‘Yeah, he was pretty hot, but I doubted he owned a tee shirt that didn't have Abercrombie or American Eagle blazoned across it.’
      • ‘Just as he was finally feeling secure again, the moment he came up to the door which bore his name and title blazoned boldly on an antique brass plate, the dread returned yet again in full force.’
      • ‘Iris extended her arm and pointed at the insignia blazoned onto his jacket.’

noun

  • 1Heraldry
    A correct description of armorial bearings.

    ‘the book contains tens of thousands of blazons of arms held by English families’
    • ‘his knowledge of medieval blazon was unrivaled’
    • ‘There are rules governing the way a blazon is written, which make it possible for anyone who understands them to draw an accurate rendition of the arms from the blazon.’
    • ‘I wonder whether some standardised form of description, akin to heraldic blazon, will gradually emerge.’
    • ‘As these heraldic arms became more elaborate, their description or blazon came to acquire its own rules, arcane vocabulary, and concise syntax.’
    • ‘The original blazon is: ‘Or, on a chev. betw. three leopards' heads gu, a crescent of the field.’’
    • ‘The words of the heraldic blazon contained in the Order of the King in Council of Nov. 5, 1800, and announced to the nation by the Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1801, prescribes the form in which the national flag is to be constructed.’
    1. 1.1archaic A coat of arms.
      ‘Well before the renaissance, the new men were buying up land, seizing cities, glorifying themselves (the Visconti are a fine example of the breed) with new titles and heraldic blazons.’
      • ‘This came with the proviso that Lodovico not remove any of the three Guicciardini coats of arms, and that he not place his own blazon anywhere on the facade, ‘especially on the outer side that faces onto the piazza.’’
      • ‘Johnny's heart ached when he saw Tom with the three golden boars' heads that marked the blazon of the House of Swynford.’
      • ‘The marriage was annulled in 1582 and Margherita became a nun, but the blazon was left to add luster to Farnese status.’
      • ‘In fact, he claimed Erôs as his deity, and even had his image emblazoned on his shield, rather than, as was custom, his ancestral blazon, or the sign of the father.’

Origin

Middle English (denoting a shield, later one bearing a heraldic device): from Old French blason ‘shield’, of unknown origin. The sense of the verb has been influenced by blaze.