Meanings
- idiomaticA situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others.
Grandma teaching you to drive is like the blind leading the blind.
4 more examples
"The Lord preserve us from evil times. . . . Without his grace, we are the blind leading the blind."
1843, James Fenimore Cooper, “5:”, in Wyandotte"I have been giving them some good advice." "Good advice!" laughed Janet. "Between you and Jamie Logan, it is the blind leading the blind, and nothing better."
1896, Amelia E. Barr, chapter 2, in A Knight of the NetsInstructor George Breathitt asked an audience of 300 computer enthusiasts in Louisville, Kentucky, how many seniors in the group would like to teach other seniors about computers. A younger member of the audience quipped disdainfully, "Wouldn't that be the blind leading the blind?"
1995 March 1, John F. Dickerson, “Aging: Never Too Old”, in Time, retrieved 04 Aug 2014Look, we're as fucked-up as you are. It's like the blind leading the blind.
1999 August 29, Jenny Bicks, “Games People Play”, in Sex and the City, season 2, episode 13, spoken by Samantha
Origin
The concept is ancient, found in several cultures. It occurs in the Upanishads, written between 800 BCE and 200 BCE: : Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind. — Katha Upanishad A similar expression exists in the Buddhist Pali Canon, composed in North India, and preserved orally until it was committed to writing during the Fourth Buddhist Council in Sri Lanka in 29 BCE, and in the works of Horace, a leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE), who wrote of caecus caeco dux (“the blind leader of the blind”). The saying also appears in the King James Version of the Bible (1611), Gospel of Matthew, 15:14: : Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish sokea rampaa taluttaa
- sokea rampaa taluttaasituation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Hungarian vak vezet világtalant
- vak vezet világtalantsituation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Icelandic blindur leiðir blindan
- blindur leiðir blindansituation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Polish ślepiec prowadzi ślepca
- ślepiec prowadzi ślepcasituation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Russian слепо́й ведёт слепо́го
- слепо́й ведёт слепо́го (slepój vedjót slepóvo)situation in which an unqualified person is attempting to guide, advise, or train others
Cite this entry
blind leading the blind. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blind%20leading%20the%20blind
“blind leading the blind.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blind%20leading%20the%20blind. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blind leading the blind,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blind%20leading%20the%20blind.
Source: blind leading the blind on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.