blinder
UK/ˈblaɪndə/US/ˈblaɪndɚ/
blinder is the comparative form of blind.
Noun
blinder (plural blinders)
- A bag or cloth put over the head of a difficult horse while it is being handled or mounted.
- A 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
- Something that impairs visual or mental perception in a way figuratively compared to horses' blinders.
- 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
- As it was, innocence was his blinder.1924, Herman Melville, chapter 15, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.
- An exceptional performance.
- He played a blinder this afternoon on the cricket ground.
- And we asked the blue winger, who in our game / had played what they call a blinder, to help out1992, Glyn Maxwell, “Out of the Rain”, in Boys at Twilight: Poems 1990 to 1995, New York: Houghton Mifflin, published 2000, page 91
- A 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
- A 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
Verb
blinder (third-person singular simple present blinders, present participle blindering, simple past and past participle blindered)
- To fit (a horse) with blinders.
- To obstruct the vision of.
- […] We climb in hopes / Of such seeing up the leaf-shuttered escarpments, / Blindered by green, under a green-grained sky1958, Sylvia Plath, “Above the Oxbow”, in The Collected Poems, New York: Harper & Row, page 88
- 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
Meaning of blind
Adjective
blind (comparative blinder, superlative blindest)
- Unable to see, or only partially able to see.
- Even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain of corn.
- Synonyms:
- sightless
- Failing to recognize, acknowledge or perceive.
- The lovers were blind to each other’s faults.
- Having little or no visibility.
- a blind path
- Closed at one end; having a dead end; exitless.
- a blind alley
- Having no openings for light or passage; both dark and exitless.
- a blind wall
- Able to be fixed without access to one end.
- a blind rivet
Synonyms of blinder
Forms of blinder
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | blinders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | blinders |
| present participle | blindering |
| past participle | blindered |
| past | blindered |
Origin of blinder
From blind + -er.
Words formed from blinder
Words that rhyme with blinder
Questions about blinder
- What does blinder mean?
- Blinder means a bag or cloth put over the head of a difficult horse while it is being handled or mounted.
- What is blinder the comparative form of?
- Blinder is the comparative form of blind.
- What part of speech is blinder?
- Blinder can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce blinder?
- Blinder is pronounced /ˈblaɪndə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of blinder?
- The plural of blinder is blinders.
Words near blinder in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: blinder (page history and authors); blind (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-blinder.ogg.
Cite this entry: “blinder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blinder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.