[f. the sb.]
1. trans. To affect with BLIGHT (see the sb., sense 1).
1695. J. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, IV. 212. It then blasts Vegetables,… blights Corn and Fruits, and is sometimes injurious even to Men.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Blight, Some do conjecture, that it is the East Wind of itself that blights.
1803. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ballads, 79. She bleets the cworn wi’ her bad e’e.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., iv. 186. A sharp frost … blighted all our early potatoes.
1842. Tennyson, Poet’s Mind, 18. There is frost in your breath Which would blight the plants.
b. transf. of parts of the body.
1811. Scott, Roderick, V. li. Blighted be the tongue That names thy name without the honour due.
2. fig. To exert a baleful influence on; to destroy the brightness, beauty, or promise of; to nip in the bud, mar, frustrate.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 457, ¶ 3. It [Lady Blast’s whisper] blights like an easterly wind.
1735. Oldys, Life Ralegh, Wks. 1829, I. 357. Yet could [they] … blight them [brave and active spirits] from advancing to any fruitful or profitable conclusions.
1832. Lewis, Use & Ab. Pol. Terms, iii. 34. Deprivation of rank … which blights so many prospects.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. iv. (1880), II. 44. The delusion which had blighted her young years.
