Library / English Dictionary

BLIND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A protective covering that keeps things out or hinders sight

Example:

they had just moved in and had not put up blinds yet

Synonyms:

blind; screen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("blind" is a kind of...):

protection; protective cover; protective covering (a covering that is intend to protect from damage or injury)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blind"):

curtain; drape; drapery; mantle; pall (hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window))

shutter (a hinged blind for a window)

window blind (a blind for privacy or to keep out light)

blinder; blinker; winker (blind consisting of a leather eyepatch sewn to the side of the halter that prevents a horse from seeing something on either side)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A hiding place sometimes used by hunters (especially duck hunters)

Example:

he waited impatiently in the blind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("blind" is a kind of...):

concealment; cover; covert; screen (a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity

Example:

the holding company was just a blind

Synonyms:

blind; subterfuge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("blind" is a kind of...):

deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)

Sense 4

Meaning:

People who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group

Example:

he spent hours reading to the blind

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("blind" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

Meronyms (members of "blind"):

blind person (a person with a severe visual impairment)

Derivation:

blind (make blind by putting the eyes out)

blind (render unable to see)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unable or unwilling to perceive or understand

Example:

blind to the consequences of their actions

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

unperceiving; unperceptive (lacking perception)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not based on reason or evidence

Example:

unreasoning panic

Synonyms:

blind; unreasoning

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

irrational (not consistent with or using reason)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Unable to see

Example:

a person is blind to the extent that he must devise alternative techniques to do efficiently those things he would do with sight if he had normal vision

Synonyms:

blind; unsighted

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

blinded (deprived of sight)

blindfold; blindfolded (wearing a blindfold)

color-blind; colour-blind (unable to distinguish one or more chromatic colors)

dazzled (having vision overcome temporarily by or as if by intense light)

deuteranopic; green-blind (inability to see the color green or to distinguish green and purplish-red)

dim-sighted; near-blind; purblind; sand-blind; visually challenged; visually impaired (having greatly reduced vision)

eyeless; sightless; unseeing (lacking sight)

protanopic; red-blind (inability to see the color red or to distinguish red and bluish-green)

snow-blind; snow-blinded (temporarily blinded by exposure to light reflected from snow or ice)

stone-blind (completely blind)

blue-blind; tritanopic (inability to see the color blue or to distinguish the colors blue and yellow)

Antonym:

sighted (able to see)

Derivation:

blindness (the state of being blind or lacking sight)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make dim by comparison or conceal

Synonyms:

blind; dim

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "blind" is one way to...):

darken (make dark or darker)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make blind by putting the eyes out

Example:

The criminals were punished and blinded

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "blind" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blind"):

abacinate (blind by holding a red-hot metal plate before someone's eyes)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

blind (people who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Render unable to see

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blind"):

bedazzle; daze; dazzle (to cause someone to lose clear vision, especially from intense light)

seel (sew up the eyelids of hawks and falcons)

snow-blind (affect with snow blindness)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

blind (people who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group)

blinder (blind consisting of a leather eyepatch sewn to the side of the halter that prevents a horse from seeing something on either side)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Romantically, a blind date might work out magically on January 15 or 27 when Venus will be close enought to sprinkle glamorous confetti in your path.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

His eyes were blinded so that he could not see, and the blood running from ears and nose and mouth turned the cabin into a shambles.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Down came another blinding rush of driving snow, and the whole landscape was blotted out.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have been!

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He was in a blind fury, a Berserker rage.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But a new study shows that they also accelerate damage wrought by blinding eye disorders, such as retinitis pigmentosa.

(In blinding eye disease, trash-collecting cells go awry, accelerate damage, NIH)

A new study of blind patients with migraine may help explain why.

(How Light Boosts Migraine Pain, NIH, US)

The blind man cursed the money.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It had been her care which provided me a companion in Clerval—and yet a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances which call forth a woman’s sedulous attention.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)