Brewer's: Blaze

A white mark in the forehead of a horse. (Icelandic, blesi, a white star on the forehead of a horse; German, blasz, pale.)

A star is a sort of white diamond in the forehead. A blaze is an elongated star or dash of white.

To blaze a path.
To notch trees as a clue. Trees so notched are called in America “blazed trees,” and the white wood shown by the notch is called “a blaze.” (See above.)

“Guided by the blazed trees ... they came to the spot.” —Goulding: The Young Marooners, 118.

“They buried him where he lay, a blazed tree marking his last resting-place.” —Adventures in Mashonaland, p. 158.

Blaze

(To). To blaze abroad. To noise abroad is the German verb blasen, to blow or sound. Shakespeare uses the noun blazon:

But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood.

Hamlet, i. 5.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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