blitz

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A sudden, intense, and concentrated effort or campaign.

   The company launched an advertising blitz before the product launch.

2. 2
   verb

   To attack something suddenly and overwhelmingly.

   Enemy planes blitzed the city through the night.

3. 3
   noun

   A swift, violent military attack, especially with heavy aerial bombing.

   Whole neighbourhoods were destroyed during the wartime blitz.

4. 4
   verb

   To blend or chop food quickly in a food processor or blender.

   Blitz the tomatoes and garlic until the sauce is smooth.

Specific use of blitz. The Blitz was in truth not a blitzkrieg, which is a rapid ground offensive based on superior tank forces. However, the word was current at the time for the successful German campaigns in Poland and France, and was transferred to the attacks on Britain, perhaps by association of Blitz (“lightning”) with the bombings.

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