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Glite Dictionary
🔫 To shoot rapidly 🗣️ To attack verbally 🎸 To perform brilliantly
to blaze away

to blaze away

1 7.7
To shoot a gun again and again quickly
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : disparar
  • When the enemy advanced, the soldiers blaze away to protect their position.
  • guns blazed away
  • fire blazing away
  • start blazing away

Examples

  • Mrs. Lovett threw her knife in vain, and the two men blazed away, but only two cats took hits.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • When they went out to fight, Jimmy grabbed it and started blazing away.

    Cry Baby Killer (1958)

  • He went for his pistol and I blazed away... the first shot got him in the chest...

    Fiction book (1993)

  • "You know he'd have a cardiac if he came home and saw a fire blazing away on our lawn.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I brought the BAR up and sprayed my front, the left, and the right. I swung it, loaded it again and again until I realized there was no more return fire, just me blazing away.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • He pulled the trigger and began to blaze away as fast as he could.

  • During the training exercise, the instructor told us to blaze away at the targets on the range.

Synonyms

to fire
vsto blaze away
∞ 1.0

To shoot a gun at a target

means repeated rapid shooting rather than a single shot
to open fire
vsto blaze away
  • NSFW
115 4.1

Start shooting at people or things with a gun

describes ongoing rapid repeated shooting rather than the act of starting
to blaze
vsto blaze away
20 7.7

To shoot many times quickly with a gun

is the same in meaning but adds a short directional word
to discharge
vsto blaze away
16 5.8

Fire a gun or other weapon

focuses on fast repeated shooting rather than causing a weapon to go off once
to volley
vsto blaze away
1 6.3

To fire many shots quickly or say many words quickly

focuses on repeated shooting of weapons rather than general rapid bursts

Antonyms

to holster
15 4.8

To put a gun or tool back into a holder on your body

How Fast

to blaze away
1 7.7
to pepper
20 5.5
to open fire
  • NSFW
115 4.1
to shoot
  • NSFW
∞ 1.8

Surface Forms

blaze away infinitive
blazed away past
blazed away past participle
blazing away present participle
blazes away third person singular

Morphology

blaze + away

The core meaning of 'blaze' (to shine/burn or move fast) combined with 'away' (ongoing action) does map plausibly onto 'performing with brilliance and speed,' so there is a recognizable compositional/metaphorical link. However, the shift from literal burning/shining to musical or artistic virtuosity is a figurative extension that a B1 learner who only knows the basic senses may not reliably infer without prior exposure, so it is only partly transparent.

Etymology

Blaze away comes from the very literal picture of guns giving bright flashes; blaze means a strong, bright burn and away shows repeated action. That image explains why it means 'to fire a gun or other weapon rapidly and repeatedly'.