blinder

Pluralblinders

Formsblinders, blindering, blindered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A screen fixed to a horse's bridle that stops it from seeing to the sides.

   A leather blinder on each side of the bridle narrowed the horse's field of vision.

   Grooms adjusted the blinders before the race so the colt would ignore the rail.

   Similarblinker

   Note

   The horse's side screens became an image for any narrowed outlook, and the plural carries that metaphor. Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) describes a field that viewed its subject 'with sexist blinders.' Kenzaburō Ōe's A Personal Matter makes the image literal again, with darkness growing 'like blinders on a horse.' A useful pattern is a descriptive adjective before the plural: sexist blinders, ideological blinders.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Anything that causes a loss of sight or makes seeing impossible.

   The midday glare off the snow was a blinder that forced every driver to squint.

   The chemical spray works as a blinder, robbing attackers of their sight for minutes.

   Note

   Here the cause of blindness can be a quality rather than a glare. In Herman Melville's Billy Budd, 'innocence was his blinder.' Used this way, the word names whatever keeps a person from seeing what is plain to others, and it often turns plural: someone 'can't see past' their blinders. That plural leans on the image of the bridle screen, though the singular stands well on its own.

3. 3
   nounslangBritishcountable

   An exceptional performance, especially a brilliant display in a sporting event.

   The young winger played an absolute blinder, setting up three goals before halftime.

   Critics agreed the lead actor turned in a blinder on opening night.

   Similarstormer, masterclass

   Oppositeshocker

   Note

   British sporting slang for a day when everything goes right, and it almost always comes with play: a batsman or winger 'played a blinder.' The phrase is at home on the cricket ground and the football pitch. Glyn Maxwell's poem 'Out of the Rain' even flags it as jargon with 'what they call a blinder.' Keep it for casual talk; in formal writing, an outstanding performance is safer.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A bright light directed at the audience to dazzle them briefly while the scene is changed.

   The lighting designer triggered a blinder to cover the quick set change between acts.

   As the blinder flared, the audience lost sight of the crew rolling the new backdrop into place.

   Note

   Stage lighting uses the audience's own eyes as a curtain. Blinders flare into the house while the stage changes, and when they switch off, the new scene is already in place before the audience can see again. This lets a change happen without a full blackout. Lighting crews tend to speak of them in the plural, since several fixtures usually work together.

5. 5
   nounslangcountable

   A bout of heavy, continuous drinking; a drinking spree.

   He went on a three-day blinder to celebrate finishing the contract.

   Nursing a headache after last night's blinder, she swore off whiskey for good.

   Similarbender, binge, spree, jag

   Note

   A slang near-twin of bender, and it takes the same verbs: people go out on a blinder. The word is not limited to the pub. John Maxton used it in a 1985 Hansard debate, arguing that a man who goes out on a blinder might end up with a criminal record. It suits relaxed conversation, where it sounds rueful or comic rather than clinical.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A bag or cloth placed over the head of a difficult horse to calm it while it is handled or mounted.

   The handler eased a blinder over the colt's head so it would stand quietly to be saddled.

   With the blinder in place, the frightened horse calmed enough to be led into the trailer.

   Similarhood, blindfold

7. 7
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To obstruct someone's sight, or figuratively to keep them from perceiving something clearly.

   Ambition can blinder even careful people to the cost of their choices.

   His loyalty blindered him to the faults of his closest friends.

   Similarblind

   Note

   A stable word turned on people: what began as fitting a horse with blinders became a way to describe narrowed attention. Sylvia Plath's "Above the Oxbow" (1958) uses it of climbers whose sight is closed in by greenery. Tessa Albert Warschaw's Rich is Better (1986) keeps the farm horse in view. The verb is transitive and usually passive or followed by to for what goes unseen: blindered to her faults.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To fit a horse with side screens that limit its sideways vision.

   Trainers blinder nervous racehorses to keep them focused on the track ahead.

   The groom blindered the colt before walking it through the fairground.

   Similarblinker

   Note

   A verb made straight from the noun for the bridle screen, and it inflects regularly: blinders, blindering, blindered. It always takes the animal as its object, as in 'they blindered the mare.' The past form blindered should not be confused with blinded, which belongs to the verb blind and means the sight is actually lost rather than screened.

9. 9
   adjective

   Comparative form of blind.

   As the disease progressed, she became blinder than she had ever feared.

   The older dog is blinder than the pup but navigates the house by smell.

   Note

   The comparative fits most naturally with the figurative blind, failing to perceive, because that kind of blindness comes in degrees. The literal 'unable to see' sense is usually treated as all-or-nothing. William Pashley in 1830 shows the figurative use, telling the self-assured they are 'even blinder than the most ignorant and illiterate.' The spelling is shared with the nouns for things that blind, so context decides which word is meant.

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