blindside

/ˈblaɪndˌsaɪd/

blindside noun: a driver's field of blindness around an automobile; the side areas behind the driver.

Noun

blindside (plural blindsides)

A driver's field of blindness around an automobile; the side areas behind the driver.

Synonyms:

blind spot
A tram/train driver's field of blindness around a tram (trolley/streetcar) or a train; the side areas behind the tram/train driver.

Synonyms:

blind spot
(figuratively) A person's weak point.
The space on the side of the pitch with the shorter distance between the breakdown/set piece and the touchline; compare openside.
- Showing no ill-effects from her lay-off, the full-back had already beaten three defenders on a jagging kick return, when she was sprung down the blindside a minute later.2025 September 20, Mike Henson, “Kildunne stars as England see off France to make final”, in BBC Sport
(rugby union) The blindside flanker, a position in rugby union, usually number 6.
- The blindside packs down at the scrum on the blindside.
- However, after an inside pass from Moody to Tom Croft and a surge from the England blind-side, number eight James Haskell was eventually pinged from in front of the posts for not releasing.2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport

blindside (third-person singular simple present blindsides, present participle blindsiding, simple past and past participle blindsided)

(transitive) To attack (a person) on their blind side.
- The robbers crept out of the forest and blindsided the traveller.
- What isn't so gimmicky is the Aggro System, where you draw fire onto yourself by acting aggressive, while your partner sneaks off blindsiding distracted enemies. Aggro depends on how big your current weapon is and how often you act aggressive.2008 April, GameAxis Unwired, page 54
(figuratively, informal, transitive) To catch off guard; to take by surprise.
- He had completed his plan to develop a new office building, but was blindsided by the sudden drop in real estate values.
- Mr. Hassan offered Ms. Huynh $20 million in Google stock — less than 10 percent of his shares — and half of three Bay Area real estate properties: houses in Palo Alto and San Francisco, and a commercial building in Menlo Park. She felt blindsided and hurt. She refused.2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

But when they did arrive at 9am on Thursday, they were still able to blindside the Chelsea hierarchy.2022 March 11, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:
The announcement blindsided employees, many of whom learned of the sudden ouster from an internal announcement and the company’s public facing blog.2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in...

Noun
plural	blindsides
alternative form	blind side
alternative form	blind-side
Verb
third-person singular present	blindsides
present participle	blindsiding
past participle	blindsided
past	blindsided

From blind + side.

What does blindside mean?: Blindside means a driver's field of blindness around an automobile; the side areas behind the driver.
How do you use blindside in a sentence?: But when they did arrive at 9am on Thursday, they were still able to blindside the Chelsea hierarchy.
What part of speech is blindside?: Blindside can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce blindside?: Blindside is pronounced /ˈblaɪndˌsaɪd/.
What is the plural of blindside?: The plural of blindside is blindsides.

Adapted from Wiktionary: blindside (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-blindside.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blindside.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blindside. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.