Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Blind

1. To make blind; to deprive of sight or discernment. To blind the truth and me. A blind guide is certainly a great mischief; but a guide that blinds those whom he should lead is . . . A much greater. (South)

2. To deprive partially of vision; to make vision difficult for and painful to; to dazzle. Her beauty all the rest did blind. (P. Fletcher)

3. To darken; to obscure to the eye or understanding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. (Dryden) The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. (Stillingfleet)

4. To cover with a thin coating of sand and fine gravel; as a road newly paved, in order that the joints between the stones may be filled.

Origin: Blinded; Blinding.

1. Destitute of the sense of seeing, either by natural defect or by deprivation; without sight. He that is strucken blind can not forget The precious treasure of his eyesight lost. (Shak)

2. Not having the faculty of discernment; destitute of intellectual light; unable or unwilling to understand or judge; as, authors are blind to their own defects. But hard be hardened, blind be blinded more, That they may stumble on, and deeper fall. (Milton)

3. Undiscerning; undiscriminating; inconsiderate. This plan is recommended neither to blind approbation nor to blind reprobation. (Jay)

4. Having such a state or condition as a thing would have to a person who is blind; not well marked or easily discernible; hidden; unseen; concealed; as, a blind path; a blind ditch.

5. Involved; intricate; not easily followed or traced. The blind mazes of this tangled wood. (Milton)

6. Having no openings for light or passage; as, a blind wall; open only at one end; as, a blind alley; a blind gut.

7. Unintelligible, or not easily intelligible; as, a blind passage in a book; illegible; as, blind writing.

8. (Science: botany) Abortive; failing to produce flowers or fruit; as, blind buds; blind flowers. Blind alley, an alley closed at one end; a cul-de-sac. Blind axle, an axle which turns but does not communicate motion. Blind beetle, one of the insects apt to fly against people, especially. at night.

(Science: zoology) blind cat, a level or drainage gallery which has a vertical shaft at each end, and acts as an inverted siphon.

(Science: botany) blind nettle, the point in the retina of the eye where the optic nerve enters, and which is insensible to light. Blind tooling, in bookbinding and leather work, the indented impression of heated tools, without gilding; called also blank tooling, and blind blocking. Blind wall, a wall without an opening; a blank wall.

Origin: as.; akin to D, g, os, Sw, & dan. Blind, Icel. Blindr, goth. Blinds; of uncertain origin.