Brewer's: Blast

In full blast. In the extreme. In America will be heard such a sentence as this: “When she came to the meeting in her yellow hat and feathers, wasn't she in full blast?” A metaphor from the blast furnace in full operation.

Blast

To strike by lightning; to make to wither. The “blasted oak.” This is the sense in which the word is used as an exclamation.

If it [the [ghost] assume my noble father's person, I'll cross it, though it blast me.

Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 1.

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