The whole of Germany is under a blanket of snow" blared the radio, little knowing that I'd just come in from shovelling snow.

Then come the clamour and the trumpet's blare.

In the street, vans roared past him; brutality blared out on placards; men were trapped in mines; women burnt alive; and once a maimed file of lunatics being exercised or displayed for the diversion of the populace (who laughed aloud), ambled and nodded and grinned past him, in the Tottenham Court Road, each half apologetically, yet triumphantly, inflicting his hopeless woe.

Sirens blared.

Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunderstorm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.

The TV blared in the background.

The blare of the radio burst upon our ears.

Pop music blared from the speakers.

So when the bold and compact band I see, / "Brave hearts", I cry, "but brave, alas! in vain; / if firm your purpose holds to follow me / who dare the worst, our present plight is plain. / Troy's guardian gods have left her; altar, fane, / all is deserted, every temple bare. / The town ye aid is burning. Forward, then, / to die and mingle in the tumult's blare."

The train slowed and blared its horn as it approached the railway crossing.