1Mix (a substance) with another substance so that they combine together.

1. 1.1often as adjective blended Mix (different types of the same substance, such as tea, coffee, spirits, etc.) together so as to make a product of the desired quality.
   a blended whisky

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Jersey Parade also boasted specialist shops, such as Cross, where you could order coffee blended to your own taste, plus an ironmonger and a garden supplies store.
   • This is a beginner's course designed to teach participants how to blend natural oils and to show how they can be used in massage.
   • Most so-called ‘Amontillados’ are no more than medium dry sherries blended from inferior quality rayas and sweet wines, however.
   • There are two basic sorts of American whiskies: straight and blended.
   • Herbal medicines and tonics called jamu are both home blended and mass produced.
   • This is different from blending, in which whiskeys are combined with neutral grain spirits.
   • All three are usually blended in the familiar French fizz we see in New Zealand as Moet and Lanson.
   • Also, makers of branded wines can blend grapes, which means when one vineyard or region has a bad year, the wine doesn't have to suffer.
   • Its various grades can be used as stand-alone products or can be blended with other transparent polymers.
   • These 3 aromas identify the three types of whiskies that when blended together result in the fifth glass.
   • Created by one of the world's leading independent perfumiers, London-based Arthur Burnham, the exotic fluid is blended from 32 types of rose oil.
   • Aged for a minimum of three years and blended to produce consistent taste from year to year, Canadian whisky is usually very light in taste compared to Scotch or bourbon.
   • Like wine, chocolate is often blended from various beans, which of course can vary.
   • Traditional aged and blended whiskey isn't the only spirit Ireland is known for.
   • He would then create a dram by blending several different whiskies together to achieve the drinker's own bespoke spirit.
   • One of the major problems that the company has been battling with is the drainage of oil from its transformers which is blended with products ranging from vehicle engine oil to cooking oil.
   • How Paul Ubana Jones manages to mix everything he has as nicely as a fine blended whiskey is beyond me, but I'm happy to let his warm, intoxicating music wash over me.
   • Other kinds of coal and manufactured fuels are also delivered directly to the site from a variety of sources and some of this is blended with the larger products of the mine coal.
   • In 1997, for example, Japan imported 32 million l (8.4 million gal) of bulk wine for bottling or blending into domestic brands.
   • This popular 10-year-old single malt whisky is an 80-proof premium blended Irish whiskey.
2. 1.2 Put or combine (abstract things) together.
   I blend basic information for the novice with some scientific gardening for the more experienced

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Calgary-based Old Trout Puppet Workshop have evolved a unique, abstract puppet theatre by blending physical theatre with mask work to create a startling mode of presentation.
   • Creativity, sharp-edged humor and a profound sadness blended together in the spirited march that rolled down Broadway.
   • It towered incongruously high above modest semi-detached roofs, built on a peculiar design which blended elements of many different ages and cultures in a bizarre heterogeneous mix.
   • The central virtue of the monograph and the article in Crop Science is that the authors blend their mysticism with basic knowledge of plant breeding.
   • But most of this is flawlessly blended with advertising and product promotion.
   • Any band that can blend an odd mixture of garage rock and southern jive automatically qualifies as good.
   • The series blends a romantic tale with beautiful images of the beach of Hana on the Hawaiian Island of Maui and features two soul mates who are separated by what brought them together - the sea.
   • Intelligence gleaned from Gitmo is blended with information from other sources to connect dots.
   • The film is the best example of blending really abstract content with a strong emotional core.
   • It is always a pleasure to find a work that blends a true sense of art with solid scientific information.
   • The film's sometimes dreamy quality is underscored by a refrain of spirituality blended with myth mixed with fable.
   • This would be part of a general move towards blending physiological information with the anatomical information provided by traditional, diagnostic images.
   • In Brazil, influences from Portugal, Africa, Native Americans, Europe and the Arab world blended to produce a unique Brazilian culture.
   • The opening of the Sonata's first movement, for example, blends serialism and passacaglia in a way prefigured in the opera's final scene.
   • A good ethnographic or art historical photograph blends technique and composition with information and context.
   • Illuminating both the art and the science of child diagnosis, the book blends advice on the interview process with information on a wide range of mental and behavioral disorders.
   • The collages blended abstract shapes with strange visual effects and, here and there, the odd familiar outline.
   • Teachers had difficulty blending the need for fluency in basic facts with problem-solving.
   • If anything, he managed to take the basic emotional core of this guitar sound and blend it seamlessly with subtle, haunting digital effects.
   • But it takes a blending of the romantic and the practical that is unique to my mother to spontaneously arrive at such a conclusion.
3. 1.3 Merge (a colour) with another so that one is not clearly distinguishable from the other.
   blend and smudge the darker colours under the bottom lashes

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He has lavished colours on his canvases, but has blended hues subtly in an attempt to give a new dimension and depth to the works.
   • To make the line appear less stepped, we blend the colour of the edge of the line with the colours around it.
   • I saw her face in the reflection as I blended the purple to peach.
   • Even novel things such as shading the patterns and blending the colours can be done to some extent by mixing one or more of the powders together.
   • She never even blended her colours in the same water jar.
   • The absence of any pigment produces white, and all pigments blended together produces black.
4. 1.4no object Form a harmonious combination.
   costumes, music, and lighting all blend together beautifully

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Then of course there is the completely imaginative theme of science fiction where completely impossible situations carefully blend with topics of general interest.
   • They blended well together and were sympathetically supported by the accompanying string orchestra, also standing to play.
   • New Zealand flax with pink-toned leaves, for example, blends well with pink flowers.
   • We are invited to learn God's lyrics, to master God's tune, and to enter into God's harmony in ways that blend with our lives and our world.
   • With the sounds of skateboards, roller blades, even BMXers and loud music blended together, there was a very soothing sound.
   • Two years ago the Gazette was allowed to exclusively reveal the revolutionary design of the proposed new buildings, set back into the hillside with undulating grass roofs to blend with the surroundings.
   • Here, again, tourist facilities had been built to blend with the trees.
   • We had some weird arrangement with two of us playing acoustic guitar, but with each of us guitarists playing different chords from one another that somehow blended together to give another chord.
   • The old trees and plants have been retained during the redesigning of the campus, and the fact that they blend with the newly introduced plants is also noteworthy.
   • Both had good voices and they blended well together.
   • A bright, fresh sound was produced by the sopranos, the men blended well together and, in all, the choir made a rich sound characterised by clear diction.
   • Deputy Higgins said it that it was absolutely ridiculous that when such major renewal works are under way that the new structure should not be re-aligned to blend with the existing street scape.
   • Also featured there is a display panel in the corporate blue of the university's logo, plus green and lilac to blend with the furnishing.
   • Choose a translucent powder to blend with your skin tone and apply with a puff or brush.
   • The solar units are environmentally friendly and can now be installed on your roof to blend with the architecture of your house.
   • White paint was used to provide a crisp contrast to the rich cinnamon color of the redwood deck and top railing and to blend with the color of the house.
   • Wisely, Patrick realized that if Christianity were to be accepted, it had to blend with native Irish traditions.
   • With great covers of rock, disco, blues numbers and ballads, their voices blended together in homage to that holiday feeling and being at home.
   • The new museum graphics had to complement the existing and blend with the Spanish Colonial architecture.
   • Head teacher Mrs Sue Bennett said that it had been designed to resemble an Essex farm barn, so it would blend with the school's rural setting.

   Synonyms

   harmonize, go, go well, go together, fit (in), tone, be in tune, dovetail, coordinate, team, accord, be compatible

   match, suit, complement, set off
5. 1.5blend in/into Be an unobtrusive or harmonious part of a greater whole by being similar in appearance or behaviour.
   she would have to employ a permanent bodyguard in the house, someone who would blend in

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Being with the older kids helped me to blend in and pick up attributes of normal behaviour that might somehow hide my eccentricities.
   • Morina had helped dress Desiree in a servant's outfit, so she would appear to blend in.
   • They've found it's possible to construct pools that are more about building with nature and blending into the natural land scape.
   • The subtle colours of the various boxes have been intentionally chosen to blend into the natural habitat.
   • For one thing, the glorification of profit above all other values is itself an ideology - though by now it's so widespread that it blends into the media scenery, appearing to be part of the natural world.
   • The materials will help give it a natural feel and blend in with the surroundings.
   • In your experience, interviewing them, who do you think fared better in terms of acculturating and blending into Australian society?
   • She uses the garden to show clients how works of art can blend into natural settings.
   • The post office wants new blood and new ideas but also to blend in with the older, more established customers.
   • When the teams finally set up camp, they construct a shelter that blends into the scenery and build handmade weapons and tools.
   • The drop section of the comforter is olive green and the color scheme is perfect for blending into a room featuring natural, earth colors.
   • We at Crosshills FC are justifiably proud of our premises which conform and blend in perfectly with the area.
   • They could blend into their surroundings and appear to vanish into thin air.
   • If it was in its natural habitat it would have blended in nicely; sat in a tree on a dull day in suburban Surrey it stood out like a sore thumb.
   • He's the man who goes through his whole life blending into the wallpaper, seemingly content to work hard day-in and day-out and leave the spotlight to others.
   • The Reuters Building does not strive to be a perfect whole but is a fuzzy, indeterminate figure that blends into a context from which it takes its cues.
   • Like all white and single backpackers, Scot arrives in India with the idea of travelling without blending in.
   • In one scene, his character appears sporting a shirt that blends in seamlessly with the coverings on the wall.
   • The point this season is the nautical influences blending into some of this season's trends.
   • The beautiful Red Lipped Batfish is a bottom dweller that blends into the readily available natural debris.

1A mixture of different substances or other things.

1. 1.1 A mixture of different types of the same substance.
   nearly all Scotch whiskies are blends

   Example sentencesExamples

   • At B.R. Guest restaurants, Renzi listed a terrific wine from the Languedoc called Cirrus - a blend of five different grapes.
   • An inspired blend of four different lavenders on a base of rosemary and thyme, it will make all your linens smell as good as sheets hung out to dry on a warm summer's day.
   • You will get the best out of your tomatoes if you fertilise them regularly either with manure or a good quality granular blend.
   • About 80 per cent if Champagne is non-vintage - blends of wines from different years and wineries, and quite a lot is not only over-priced but is thin and lacks fruit.
   • This provides essential fats in a blend well-suited for long term use.
   • Whether it's for a Mexican dish or an Italian dish, people are looking at the different blends of cheese that fit that need.
   • A #2 blend has lubricating qualities that make it oily and smelly.
   • The sparkling wine, Sula Brut, is made out of a blend of three different grape varieties; a creamy, light nectar.
   • Though most chocolatiers use a blend of different beans, some prefer to stick to a favorite brand.
   • I personally support the idea of a mandatory target for ethanol blends in general fuel-based products.
   • Make up small quantities of your blends so they don't have to stand for too long before being used.
   • Real tea is sometimes combined with herbal blends to supply the benefits of both.
   • Although single aroma incense and floral waters are not uncommon in Ayurveda, it is more typical to see blends or combinations of several different aromas.
   • But the EPA would have to abide by the Clean Air Act, which led to all of these different blends of gas in the first place.
   • For example, you can find blends of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and so on.
   • By asking the seller more about the blend, and listening to how they respond, you should have a better idea about the quality of the blend being sold.
   • Floating in your fruity red, there's a blend of citrus fruit juices and a dash of blackcurrant.
   • It is also difficult to sell gasoline into the U.S. market because the U.S. has something like four dozen different formulas, mixtures or blends for gasoline, and it confuses the seller.
   • In the New World such a process is likely to involve the assembly of blends of various different quality levels and character.
   • Some will be kept in reserve for future blends and some will enter the blend immediately.
   • If we don't choose the pups that work like the latest Champion, we are not selecting the right genetic blend from the many possible combinations.

   Synonyms

   mixture, mix, compound, suspension, tincture, infusion, emulsion, colloid, gel, fluid
2. 1.2 A word made up of parts of two other words and combining their meanings, for example motel from motor and hotel.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The term phaser was created as a blend of phase and laser.
   • But Scalito is a different kind of onomastic blend: an epithet combining elements of two names to suggest a resemblance of one named person to the other.
   • The name Lindows is a blend of Linux and Windows.
   • The word arthritis is a blend of the Greek words arthron for joint and itis for inflammation; therefore, arthritis means joint inflammation.
   • An early example is the word motorcade, formed as a blend of motor and cavalcade, which created a new suffix - cade that has been used in words like aerocade, aquacade and even camelcade and tractorcade.