blend
/blɛnd
/verb [with object]
1Mix (a substance) with another substance so that they combine together: blend the cornflour with a tablespoon of water add the grated cheese and blend well...
- Normally, when wool and cotton are blended together, two separate dye baths are required because the wool takes up most of the dye.
- The ice cream was blended with honey, saffron and pistachio - refreshing and milky.
- The advantage of the system is that the feed ingredients are blended together, providing the cow with a nutritionally balanced diet in every bite.
Synonyms
mix, mingle, combine, put together, stir, whisk, fold in, jumble, merge;
fuse, unite, unify, join, amalgamate, incorporate;
meld, marry, compound, alloy, coalesce, homogenize, intermingle, intermix, interpenetrate;
integrate, emulsify, premix
informal blunge
rare admix, commingle, interflow, commix
1.1 (often 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...
- He would then create a dram by blending several different whiskies together to achieve the drinker's own bespoke spirit.
- 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.
- These 3 aromas identify the three types of whiskies that when blended together result in the fifth glass.
1.2Put or combine (abstract things) together: I blend basic information for the novice with some scientific gardening for the more experienced (as noun blending) a blending of romanticism with a more detached modernism...
- 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.
- The collages blended abstract shapes with strange visual effects and, here and there, the odd familiar outline.
- Intelligence gleaned from Gitmo is blended with information from other sources to connect dots.
1.3Merge (a colour) with another so that one is not clearly distinguishable from the other: blend and smudge the darker colours under the bottom lashes...
- 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.
- To make the line appear less stepped, we blend the colour of the edge of the line with the colours around it.
- She never even blended her colours in the same water jar.
1.4 [no object] Form a harmonious combination: costumes, music, and lighting all blend together beautifully...
- Choose a translucent powder to blend with your skin tone and apply with a puff or brush.
- New Zealand flax with pink-toned leaves, for example, blends well with pink flowers.
- The new museum graphics had to complement the existing and blend with the Spanish Colonial architecture.
Synonyms
harmonize, go, go well, go together, fit (in), tone, be in tune, dovetail, coordinate, team, accord, be compatible;
match, suit, complement, set off
1.5 (blend 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...
- 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.
- 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 beautiful Red Lipped Batfish is a bottom dweller that blends into the readily available natural debris.
noun
1A mixture of different substances or other things: the chutney is a blend of bananas, raisins, and ginger Ontario offers a cultural blend you’ll find nowhere else on earth...
- It's looking very handsome out back, all sweeping lawns backed by a soft mixed hedge perhaps ten feet high, composed of a good blend of native trees and bushes.
- This trio of New Zealanders will play a blend of original compositions and jazz favourites.
- Medi-Coat is a blend of several different polymers.
Synonyms
mixture, mix, combination, admixture, mingling, commingling, amalgamation, amalgam, union, conjunction, marriage, merging, compound, alloy, fusion, meld, composite, concoction, synthesis, homogenization;
miscellany, jumble, hotchpotch
informal mash-up
1.1A mixture of different types of the same substance: nearly all Scotch whiskies are blends...
- 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.
- Though most chocolatiers use a blend of different beans, some prefer to stick to a favorite brand.
- 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.
1.2A word made up of parts of two other words and combining their meanings, for example motel from motor and hotel.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....
- 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 word arthritis is a blend of the Greek words arthron for joint and itis for inflammation; therefore, arthritis means joint inflammation.
Origin
Middle English: probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Old Norse blanda 'to mix'.