blind leading the blind
Incompetent people guiding others who are also incompetent
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blind spot
This is a small area not sensitive to light, situated on the retina where the optic nerve enters. The term is used figuratively to describe some area in one's discernment where judgment and under- standing are lacking.
blind with science
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
blind-half-hundred
The Fiftieth Regiment of Foot; so called through their great sufferings from ophthalmia when serving in Egypt.
blind-hookey
A game at cards which has no recommendation beyond the rapidity with which money can be won and lost at it; called also WILFUL MURDER.
blind-man’s-holiday
Night, darkness. Sometimes applied to the period "between the lights."
blindman's buff
A play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief bound over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught, must be blinded in his stead.
blindman's buff
A very old-established name for an old and well-known children's game. "Buff" here is short for "buffet," and is an allusion to the three buffs or pats which the "blind man" gets when he has caught a player.
blindman's holiday
The hour of dusk, when it is too dark to work, and too soon to light candles. The phrase was in common use at least as early as Elizabethan times.
blink first
To give in or back down first in a confrontation
blink of an eye
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
blink-fencer
A person who sells spectacles.
blinker
A blackened eye.—Norwich. Also a hard blow in the eye. BLINKERS, spectacles.
blinkers
Spectacles.
blinking
bloody
blivit
A gadget.
bloated aristocrat
A street term for any decently dressed person. From the persistent abuse lavished on a "bloated and parasitical aristocracy" by Hyde Park demagogues and a certain unpleasant portion of the weekly press.
blob
(from BLAB), to talk. Beggars are of two kinds—those who SCREEVE (introducing themselves with a FAKEMENT, or false document) and those who BLOB, or state their case in their own truly "unvarnished" language.
block
The head. "To BLOCK a hat," is to knock a man’s hat down over his eyes.—See BONNET. Also a street obstruction.
block and tackle
A system of pulleys and ropes for lifting heavy loads
block houses
Prisons, houses of correction, &c.
block ornaments
The small dark-coloured and sometimes stinking pieces of meat which used to be exposed on the cheap butchers’ blocks or counters; matters of interest to all the sharp-visaged women in poor neighbourhoods. Since the great rise in the price of meat there has been little necessity for butchers to make block ornaments of their odds and ends. They are bespoke beforehand.
block out
to ignore or exclude something
blocked at both ends
Finished. The game is blocked at both ends; the game is ended.
blocking and tackling
Fundamental or basic aspects of a task or project
bloke
A man; "the BLOKE with the jasey," the man with the wig, i.e., the Judge. Gipsy and Hindoo, LOKE. North, BLOACHER, any large animal.
blood
A riotous disorderly fellow.
blood
A fast or high-mettled man. Nearly obsolete, but much used in George the Fourth’s time.
blood and gore
Violent or gruesome acts and their consequences
blood and guts
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
blood for blood
A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.
blood in the water
A situation where someone is vulnerable to attack or criticism
blood is thicker than water
Family ties are stronger than any other relationship
blood is thicker than water
Relationship has a claim which is generally acknowledged. It is better to seek kindness from a kinsman than from a stranger. Water soon evaporates and leaves no mark behind; not so blood. So the interest we take in a stranger is thinner and more evanescent than that which we take in a blood relation. The proverb occurs in Ray's Collection (1672) and is probably many years older.
blood money
The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c.
blood money
Money paid to a person for giving such evidence as shall lead to the con- viction of another; money paid to the next of kin to induce him to forgo his "right" of seeking blood for blood, or (formerly) as compensation for the murder of his relative; money paid to a person for betraying another, as Judas was paid blood-money for his betrayal of the Saviour.
blood relation
One in direct descent from the same father or mother; one of the same family stock.
Blood Royal
The royal family or race; also called simply "the blood," as "a prince of the blood.
blood without groats is nothing
Family with- out fortune is worthless. The allusion is perhaps to black pudding, which consists chiefly of blood and groats formed into a sausage.
blood, sweat and tears
Hard work and great effort
blood-money
The money that used to be paid to any one who by information or evidence led to a conviction for a capital offence. Nowadays applied to all sums received by informers.
bloody
A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.
bloody
An expletive used, without reference to meaning, as an adjective and an adverb, simply for intensification.
Bloody Assizes
The infamous assizes held by Judge Jeffreys in 1685. Three hundred were executed, more whipped or imprisoned, and a thousand sent to the plantations for taking part in Monmouth's rebellion.
bloody back
A soldier.
Bloody Bill
The 31 Henry VIII, c. 14, which denounced death, by hanging or burn- ing, on all who denied the doctrine of transub- stantiation.
Bloody Eleventh
The Devonshire Regiment, llth Foot, raised m 1685. At the Battle of Salamanca, in the Peninsular War, the regiment fought so stub- bornly that there was hardly a man among them who was not wounded, and from this exploit they got their name.
Bloody Halfway
Wadi Halfa.
bloody hand
A term in old Forest Law denoting a man whose hand was bloody, and
bloody jemmy
An uncooked sheep’s head.—See SANGUINARY JAMES. Also MOUNTAIN PECKER.
Bloody Mars
A local English name for a variety of wheat. It is a corruption of the French ble de Mars, March grain.
Bloody Thursday
The Thursday in the first week m Lent used to be so called.
bloom is off the rose
Something has lost its appeal or excitement
blootered
drunk
blossom forth
To bloom.
blossom out
To develop or flourish suddenly
blot on the escutcheon
A stain or disgrace on someone's reputation
blot one's copy book
To spoil one's reputation by doing something wrong
blot out
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see blot, out.
blow
He has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods. Cant.
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