Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BLIND, n.

1. Something to hinder the sight. Civility casts a blind over the duty. – L'Estrange.
2. Something to mislead the eye or the understanding; as, one thing serves as a blind for another.
3. A skreen; a cover; as, a blind for a window, or for a horse.

BLIND, or BLINDE, n.

See Blend, an ore.

BLIND, v.t.

1. To make blind; to deprive of sight.
2. To darken; to obscure to the eye. Such darkness blinds the sky. – Dryden.
3. To darken the understanding; as, to blind the mind.
4. To darken or obscure to the understanding. He endeavored to blind and confound the controversy. – Stillingfleet.
5. To eclipse. – Fletcher.

BLIND'ED, pp.

Deprived of sight; deprived of intellectual discernment; made dark or obscure.

BLIND'FOLD, a. [blind and fold.]

Having the eyes covered; having the mental eye darkened.

BLIND'FOLD, v.t.

To cover the eyes; to hinder from seeing.

BLIND'FOLD-ED, pp.

Having the eyes covered; hindered from seeing.

BLIND'FOLD-ING, ppr.

Covering the eyes; hindering from seeing.

BLIND'ING, ppr.

Depriving of sight, or of understanding; obscuring.

BLIND'LY, adv.

1. Without sight or understanding.
2. Without discerning the reason; implicitly; without examination; as, to be blindly led by another. – Dryden.
3. Without judgment or direction. – Dryden.

BLIND'MAN'S-BALL, n.

A species of Fungus, Lycoperdon, or puff-ball. – Fam. of Plants.

BLIND'MAN'S-BUFF, n.

A play in which one person is blindfolded, and hunts out the rest of the company. – Johnson.

BLIND'NESS, n.

Want of bodily sight; want of intellectual discernment; ignorance. – Locke.

BLIND'NET-TLE, n.

A plant.

BLINDS, n.

In the military art, a defense made of osiers or branches interwoven, and laid across two rows of stakes, four or five feet asunder, of the highth of a man, to shelter the workmen, and prevent their being overlooked by the enemy. – Encyc.

BLIND'-SER-PENT, n.

A reptile of the Cape of Good Hope, covered with black scales, but spotted with red, white, and brown. – Dict. of Nat. Hist.

BLIND'SIDE, n. [blind and side.]

The side which is most easily assailed; or the side on which the party is least able or disposed to see danger; weakness; foible; weak part. – Swift.

BLIND'-VES-SEL, n.

With chimists, a vessel with an opening, on one side only. – Johnson.

BLIND'-WORM, n. [blind and worm.]

A small reptile, called also slow worm, a species of Anguis, about eleven inches long, covered with scales, with a forked tongue, but harmless. – Dict. of Nat. Hist.

BLINK, n.

Blink of ice, is the dazzling whiteness about the horizon, occasioned by the reflection of light from fields of ice, at sea. – Mar. Dict.

BLINK, n.

A glimpse or glance. – Hall.

BLINK, v.i. [Sax. blican, to shine, to twinkle; bliciend, clothed in white; ablican, to appear, to whiten; D. blikken, to glance, to twinkle, and blinken, to shine, to glitter; blyken, to appear or show; Sw. blincha, to wink, to connive; bleka, to shine, to twinkle; Ger. blicken, to look, to glance; blinken, to glance, to shine, to twinkle, to wink; Dan. blinker, to blink, to glance, to wink, to shine, to glitter. This contains the same radical letters as light.]

1. To wink; to twinkle with the eye.
2. To see obscurely. – Johnson. Is it not to see with the eyes half shut, or with frequent winking, as a person with weak eyes? One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame. – Pope.

BLINK'ARD, n. [blink and ard, kind.]

A person who blinks or has bad eyes; that which twinkles, or glances, as a dim star, which appears and disappears. – Hakewill.

BLINK'ERS, n.

Blinds for horses; expansions of the bridle to prevent a horse from seeing objects at his sides.

BLINK'ING, ppr.

Winking; twinkling.