blinder

1. comparativecomparative form of blind: more blind

   Ye who arrogate to yourselves that ye see more, or at least are not so blind as others; in your unbelieving conduct, allow me to say, ye are blinder than others; ye are even blinder than the most ignorant and illiterate.

   1830, William Pashley, The Voice of Reason in Defence of the Christian Faith

plural blinders

1. Something that blinds, literally or figuratively.
   1. A bag or cloth put over the head of a difficult horse while it is being handled or mounted.

      Synonyms: blinker, winker

   2. oftenpluralplural onlyA screen attached to a horse's bridle preventing it from being able to see things to its side.

      From both sides of his head a blackness swiftly grew like blinders on a horse and darkly narrowed his field of vision.

      1969, Kenzaburō Ōe, chapter 5, in John Nathan, transl., A Personal Matter, New York: Grove Press, page 84

      Synonyms: blinker, winker

   3. Something that impairs visual or mental perception in a way figuratively compared to horses' blinders.

      As it was, innocence was his blinder.

      1924, Herman Melville, chapter 15, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.

      2 more examples

      Orientalism itself, furthermore, was an exclusively male province; like so many professional guilds during the modern period, it viewed itself and its subject matter with sexist blinders.

      1978, Edward Said, Orientalism, New York: Vinatage, published 2003, Chapter 3, Part I, p. 207

      I, I, got a new girlfriend / She feels like he's on top / And I don't feel no remorse / And you can't see past my blinders

      2016 February 5, Wesley Schultz and Jeremy Fraites, “Ophelia”, in Cleopatra, performed by The Lumineers

   4. UKslangAn exceptional performance.

      He played a blinder this afternoon on the cricket ground.

      1 more example

      And we asked the blue winger, who in our game / had played what they call a blinder, to help out

      1992, Glyn Maxwell, “Out of the Rain”, in Boys at Twilight: Poems 1990 to 1995, New York: Houghton Mifflin, published 2000, page 91

      Synonyms: dazzler, cracker, belter

   5. slangA bout of heavy drinking.

      If a man goes out on a blinder, he might be charged with being drunk and incapable and therefore have a criminal record, although he is an honourable man.

      1985 May 2, John Maxton, Hansard

      Synonyms: bender

   6. entertainmentA bright light used to blind the audience temporarily during a scene change.

      When the 'blinders' are switched off, and the audience's eyes given time to re-adjust, the new scene is in place […]

      1992, The Lighting Journal, page 9

present singular third person blinders · participle present blindering · participle past blindered · past blindered

1. transitiveTo fit (a horse) with blinders.
2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo obstruct the vision of.

   […] We climb in hopes / Of such seeing up the leaf-shuttered escarpments, / Blindered by green, under a green-grained sky

   1958, Sylvia Plath, “Above the Oxbow”, in The Collected Poems, New York: Harper & Row, page 88

   1 more example

   They think they're being focussed when they're really just blindering their eyes, as a farmer would a plough horse, to ways of getting to their goal faster.

   1986, Tessa Albert Warschaw, Rich is Better: How Women Can Bridge the Gap Between Wanting and Having It All — Financially, Emotionally, Professionally, Penguin, page 248