blindage

Noun

blindage (plural blindages)

1. (historical) A cover or protection for an advanced trench or approach, formed of fascines and earth supported by a framework.
   • A blindage may also be formed by covering the space between two traverses with beams, hurdles, earth, & c .1852, Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Fortification, Military Tactics, and Perspective
   • In order that the reader may appreciate what a ruined blindage looked like and with what horrors its destruction was attended, the following report of Sapper Peter Oleinik, of the Kwantung Sapper Company, is published in full:1911, F. E. G. Skey, “The Final Struggle for 203-Meter Hill at Port Arthur”, in The Military Engineer, volume 3, page 107
2. A deep dugout, often equipped with bunks and other fittings.
   • There literally was left no space to step foot in the whole blindage: it was so choked with soldiers up to the very entrance.1855, Leo Tolstoy, Sevastopol Sketches
   • The key unit of life here is the dugout – what the soldiers call a ‘blindage’ – an underground burrow where half a dozen men share the narrow space between the bunks with weapons, ammunition, biscuits, tea bags, and a jumble of other essentials (there is also usually a cat, not to mention the mice).2017 January 14, Roland Oliphant, “Special report: Loose cannons at the frontline of Ukraine's forgotten war”, in The Telegraph
3. A final layer of material such as sand or road scrapings that is spread to fill in any small gaps in the road surface and soak up any wet spots.
   • Surveyors differ in opinion, some use 10 per cent. of the screenings from the machine as blindage; the writer has tried these, but prefers the road scrapings.1907, Robert Phillips, “Discussion on Construction and Maintenance of Rural Roads”, in Report of the 3d-4th Congress of the Sanitary Institute, page 661
   • Blindage is required to finish off the surface of the metal coating by filling up any interstices which may remain after it is consolidated.1920, William Lumisden Strange, Notes on Irrigation, Roads and Buildings and on the Water Supply of Towns, page 731