Noun

(en noun)

A wonderful event occurring in the physical world attributed to supernatural powers.

Many religious beliefs are based on miracles .

An example of a miracle associated with Muhammad is the splitting of the moon.

A fortunate outcome that prevails despite overwhelming odds against it.

* 1966 November 25, "A Great Document Made by Wisdom and Luck", in Life , volume 61, number 22, page 13:

Secondly, it was a miracle that a document hammered out with such difficulty, satisfying very few of its authors completely and satisfying some of them very little, would turn out to be the most successful political invention in history.

* 1993 , Hatch N. Gardner and Frank H. Winter, P-51 Mustang (Turner Publishing Company), page 78:

It was a miracle that I survived that ditching in the high waves because I had my seat belt and shoulder harness unbuckled in anticipation of bailing out.

* 2003 , Eric Lionel Jones, The European miracle: environments, economies, and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia (Cambridge University Press), page 218:

Seen in this light it was a miracle of economic history that Europe was able to undertake so much higher a proportion of its expansion overseas, and secure a massive injection of resources and big markets without a commensurate growth in her numbers.

An awesome and exceptional example of something

* 1847 , Honoré de Balzac, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life , page 323:

The home of our kings, over which you tread as you pace the immense hall known as the Salle des Pas-Perdus, was a miracle of architecture.

* 2008 , Joseph R. Conlin, The American Past: A Survey of American History (Cengage Learning), page 670:

It was a miracle' of engineering that made possible, with the cheap electricity the dam generated, another kind of ' miracle : the bizarre, superilluminated city of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Noun

(en noun)

Some kind of divine or supernatural aid, or reward.

A pronouncement invoking divine aid.

*, chapter=5

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}

Good fortune.

(paganism) A modern pagan ceremony.

The act of declaring or bestowing favor; approval.

A thing one is glad of.

A prayer before a meal; grace.

A group of unicorns.

* 2008 , Betsy Schiffman, " Time To Trash the Intellectual Property System, Says Report", Wired , 11 September 2008:

And since we’re laying out our wishes, we’d also like a blessing of unicorns and one million dollars.

* 2009 , Andrew Orlowski, " Facebook music dashboard: Revenue at last?", The Register , 13 September 2011:

Then a blessing of unicorns charged into the studio, and I was carried away to be re-educated.

* 2011 , Suzette Mayr, Monoceros , Coach House Books (2011), ISBN 9781552452417, page 94:

She just wants to talk to her friends on www.unicornwillsaveus.com or write in her journal or flump on her bedroom floor with her blessing of unicorns: her posters, figurines, stickers, temporary tattoos of anatomically correct unicorns.