BLIND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blind mean? 

• BLIND (noun)
  The noun BLIND has 4 senses:

1. people who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group

2. a hiding place sometimes used by hunters (especially duck hunters)

3. a protective covering that keeps things out or hinders sight

4. something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity

  Familiarity information: BLIND used as a noun is uncommon.

• BLIND (adjective)
  The adjective BLIND has 3 senses:

1. unable to see

2. unable or unwilling to perceive or understand

3. not based on reason or evidence

  Familiarity information: BLIND used as an adjective is uncommon.

• BLIND (verb)
  The verb BLIND has 3 senses:

1. render unable to see

2. make blind by putting the eyes out

3. make dim by comparison or conceal

  Familiarity information: BLIND used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLIND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

People who have severe visual impairments, considered as a group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

he spent hours reading to the blind

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

he waited impatiently in the blind

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

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

Sense 3

Meaning:

A protective covering that keeps things out or hinders sight

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

blind; screen

Context example:

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

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 4

Meaning:

Something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

blind; subterfuge

Context example:

the holding company was just a blind

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

deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)

• BLIND (adjective)

Comparative: blinder   
Superlative: blindest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unable to see

Synonyms:

blind; unsighted

Context 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

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unable or unwilling to perceive or understand

Context example:

blind to the consequences of their actions

Similar:

unperceiving; unperceptive (lacking perception)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Not based on reason or evidence

Synonyms:

blind; unreasoning

Context example:

unreasoning panic

Similar:

irrational (not consistent with or using reason)

• BLIND (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they blind    ... he / she / it blinds   
Past simple: blinded   
Past participle: blinded   
-ing form: blinding   

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make blind by putting the eyes out

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

The criminals were punished and blinded

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:

Make dim by comparison or conceal

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blind; dim

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

darken (make dark or darker)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

“I have been blind!” cried the Colonel.

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

Excellent, Mr. Holmes—that is better than your idea of a blind.

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

Once he dared, one afternoon, when he found her in the darkened living room with a blinding headache.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The disease, caused by the death of retina cells at the back of the eye, affects 60million people around the world, a 10th of whom have gone completely blind.

(Air Pollution Can Trigger Glaucoma, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Material stretches away from the blinding brightness of the galactic plane itself, becoming more clearly observable against the darker background of the cosmos.

(A Galaxy on the Edge, ESO)

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have found that low oxygen levels in seawater could blind some marine invertebrates.

(Low ocean oxygen levels can blind sea creatures, National Science Foundation)

He said it had been estimated that 650,000-700,000 children worldwide die from pro-vitamin A deficiency each year with a further several hundred thousand going blind.

(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Retinitis pigmentosa is an incurable and unpreventable blinding eye disease that affects 1 in 4,000 people.

(Immune system can slow degenerative eye disease, National Institutes of Health)

Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Because if you did not wear spectacles the brightness and glory of the Emerald City would blind you.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)