Clipping ofblitzkrieg, fromGermanBlitzkrieg(literally“lightning war”).
blitz (countable anduncountable,pluralblitzes)
- (countable) A suddenattack, especially anair raid; usually with reference to theBlitz.
- (countable) A swift and overwhelming attack or effort.
We embarked on a publicityblitz, putting posters and flyers all around town.
2018 April 10, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, inThe Guardian[1]:Ultimately, though, Liverpool had inflicted a grievous result in the first leg when they scored three times in a 19-minuteblitz and, importantly, did not concede an away goal.
2021 March 25, Koichi Nakano, “The Olympics Are On! But Why?”, inThe New York Times[2],→ISSN:He [Yoshihide Suga] seems to be counting on a mediablitz with feel-good effects around the Games to improve his sagging popularity.
2021 June 22,Nicholas Fandos, “Republicans Block Voting Rights Bill, Dealing Blow to Biden and Democrats”, inThe New York Times[3]:Liberal activists promised a well-funded summertimeblitz, replete with home-state rallies and million-dollar ad campaigns, to try to ramp up pressure on a handful of Senate Democrats opposed to changing the rules.
2025 May 24, Stephen Morris, Melissa Heikkilä, Cristina Criddle, “Defending the high ground”, inFT Weekend, Big Read, page 7:As well as its revamped search bar, Google unveiled ablitz of other innovations that point to the longer-term evolution of the product.
- (countable, American football) Aplay in which additionaldefenders beyond the defensivelinemenrush thepasser.
- (uncountable, chess)Ellipsis ofblitz chess.
2013 June 24, Mark Samuelian, “Speed Chess Changed My Brain”, inThe Atlantic[4]:What I had played was chess. Specially, I knocked out some 2,000 games of speed (or "blitz") chess in the two months leading up to the tournament. In fact, I played so much that I'm currently in the top half-percent of more than 1.3 million ofblitz players at an online chess competition site.
2015, Mark Dvoretsky,For Friends and Colleagues, volume 2 (Reflections on My Profession):In order to avoid misunderstanding, I must note that I object to the attempts to displace normal chess with fast play, not rapid orblitz in general. I love them both, and, if I were to choose which to play, classic or rapid, I would choose rapid.
- (cooking) The act ofblending orpuréeing food using ablender orprocessor.
- (fishing) An occurrence in which large numbers of fish, typicallystriped bass orbluefish, feed on a school of baitfish, typically one in which the occurrence can be seen from the surface.
swift and overwhelming attack
blitz (third-person singular simple presentblitzes,present participleblitzing,simple past and past participleblitzed)
- (transitive) Toattackquickly orsuddenly, as by anair raid or similar action.
- Synonym:charge
1990 February 4, Chrystos, “Headaches And Ruminations”, inGay Community News, volume17, number29, page 9:So the question remains — what to do with ignorance, which I must presume is deliberate, as in this media-blitzed era it is not possible to be truly ignorant after age 12.
- (intransitive, American football) To perform ablitz.
The Washington High defense almost alwaysblitzes on third down.
- (transitive, cooking) Topurée orchop (food products) using afood processor orblender.
- Synonym:zhoosh
To make nut roast, you have toblitz the nuts in the food processor before adding the parsley and breadcrumbs.
- (transitive, informal) To do somethingquickly or in onesession.
- Synonyms:hurry,zoom;see alsoThesaurus:rush
GermanBlitz
blitz
- (photography)flash,camera flash
Unadapted borrowing fromEnglishblitz, shortened fromEnglishblitzkrieg, fromGermanBlitzkrieg.
blitz m (invariable)
- blitz
Unadapted borrowing fromEnglishblitz, shortened fromEnglishblitzkrieg, fromGermanBlitzkrieg.
blitz f (invariable)
- randomcheckpoint(a hastily set-up point along a road where the police stop random drivers)
blitz m (pluralblitz)
- blitz
