DCHP-1 Online
blaze ((v.)) 
1 v. chop a piece of bark from a tree so as to reveal the white wood to serve as a marker.
- 1788 (1905) There must be due care to . . . blaze healthy trees. . . .
- 1793 (1916) [LITTLEHALE Journal] I observed many trees blazed and various figures of Indians . . . and animals drawn upon them, descriptive of the tribes, nations and numbers that had passed.
- 1923 They even marked trails by blazing trees as they went. . . .
2 v. mark or identify (a trail, property line, etc.) by cutting a series of blazes in trees.
See also: blazing
- 1872 It took us two or three days to complete this line . . . two of us cutting out a line and blazing the line, the others building and baiting the traps.
- 1952 Joseph walked back to the woodlot that day and blazed a road for the fall chopping. . . .
- 1965 The trail . . . cleared, blazed, bridged and fence-stiled in a six-month crash program by early 1964.
- 1788 (1905) There must be due care to . . . blaze healthy trees. . . .