Burned brightly or intensely; or to mark a trail (especially a tree) with blazes for others to follow.
From Old Norse 'blesafr' or 'blasa' meaning 'to blow or flame'; the trail-marking sense comes from marking trees with axe cuts (blazes) in early American frontier traditions.
Hiking trail blazes—painted marks on trees—originate from frontiersmen literally cutting marks into bark, creating the phrase 'to blaze a trail' which became a metaphor for pioneering any new path, whether literal or metaphorical.
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