blur

From earlier blurre, probably an alteration of blear, from Middle English bleren, from Old English *blerian (attested in āblered (“made bare, made bald”)), from Proto-West Germanic *blaʀjan, from Proto-Germanic *blazjaną (“to make pale”), from Proto-Germanic *blasaz (“pale”). Compare Scots blore, bloar (“to blur, cover with blots”), Low German bleeroged (“blear-eyed”). More at blear.

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɜː(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

blur (third-person singular simple present blurs, present participle blurring, simple past and past participle blurred)

1. To make indistinct or hazy, to obscure or dim.

   to blur a photograph by moving the camera while taking it

2. To smear, stain or smudge.

   to blur a manuscript by handling it while damp

3. (intransitive) To become indistinct.
4. To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken.
   • 1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay:

     His eyes are blurred with the lightning's glare.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To sully; to stain; to blemish, as reputation.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     Sarcasms may eclipse thine own, / But cannot blur my lost renown.

6. (graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus away from.
   • 2003, John Pollock, JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition, page 175:

     Then give this box focus to blur the first one: […]

   • 2001, Martin Webb, Michel Plungjan, Keith Drakard, Instant JavaScript, page 678:

     These form elements need to have an onFocus event handler to blur the current focus.

   • 2007, Danny Goodman, JavaScript Bible, page 273:

     Blurring one window and focusing on another window yields the same result of sending the window to the back of the pile.

   • 2010, Chuck Easttom, Advanced JavaScript, page 329:

     A manual way to blur a text object is to press the Tab key, which advances focus to the next field in order and removes it from the current field (blurring it).

7. (copyright law) To use a sign, image, expression, etc. sufficiently close to a trademarked one that it causes confusion between them.

• (make indistinct or hazy): pixelate, smooth
• (move input focus from): unfocus

• sharpen

blur (countable and uncountable, plural blurs)

1. A smear, smudge or blot.
2. Something that appears hazy or indistinct.

   The surroundings went by in a blur.

   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 26, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them. Appleby could see it dimly, a blur of shadowy buildings with the ridge of roof parapet alone cutting hard and sharp against the clearing sky.

   • 2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 15 November 2016:

     The fightback when it came was in the [Roger] Federer fashion: unfussy, filled with classy strokes from the back with perfectly timed interventions at the net that confounded his opponent. The third set passed in a bit of a blur, the fourth, which led to the second tie-break, was the most dramatic of the match.

3. (uncountable) Haziness, blurriness.
   • 1978, Stanley Coren, Joan S. Girgus, Seeing Is Deceiving: The Psychology of Visual Illusions, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., →ISBN, page 82:

     Unfortunately, a small artificial pupil also tends to increase the amount of diffraction somewhat, but this increase in blur is considerably smaller than the decrease that results from the control of other factors.

   • 2014, Albrecht Rissler, Photographic Composition: Principles of Image Design, Rocky Nook, Inc., →ISBN:

     The second option (right-hand page) features a sharp background and a cyclist who appears as a smudge of blur.

   • 2016, Kat Sloma, Art with an iPhone: A Photographer’s Guide to Creating Altered Realities, Amherst Media, →ISBN:

     Selectively applying blur to the edges can give the impression of a toy camera or a tilt-shift lens.

4. (obsolete) A moral stain or blot.
   • 1548, Nicolas Udall, The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente:

     […] with her raillyng sette a great blurre on myne honesty

blur (comparative more blur, superlative most blur)

1. (Malaysia, Singapore, informal) In a state of doubt or confusion.

• Burl, burl