Log in or Sign up
  1. purblind love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Having poor vision; nearly or partly blind.
  2. adj. Slow in understanding or discernment; dull: "a purblind oligarchy that flatly refused to see that history was condemning it to the dustbin” ( Jasper Griffin).
  3. adj. Obsolete Completely blind.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Quite blind; entirely blind.
  2. Nearly blind; dim-sighted; seeing dimly or obscurely.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Partially blind.
  2. adj. Near-sighted or dim-sighted.
  3. adj. Lacking in discernment or understanding.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Wholly blind.
  2. adj. Nearsighted, or dim-sighted; seeing obscurely

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. having greatly reduced vision
  2. adj. lacking in insight or discernment

Etymologies

  1. Middle English pur blind, totally blind, nearsighted : pur, pure; see pure + blind, blind; see blind. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘purblind’.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • minivet According to the OED, the prefix originally meant "pure," so it was actually an amplification of "blind," but this meaning became obscure centuries ago and it took meanings like partially blind, blind in one eye, myopic, stupid, etc. Sep 27, 2010

  • bilby
    O purblind race of miserable men,
    How many among us at this very hour
    Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves,
    By taking true for false, or false for true;
    Here, through the feeble twilight of this world
    Groping, how many, until we pass and reach
    That other, where we see as we are seen!


    - Alfred Tennyson, 'Geraint and Enid'. Sep 30, 2008

  • penfold Purblind means either partially, or not completely blind. It also has a second meaning of slow to understand or discern. Aug 14, 2008

  • reesetee Purblind is "partially" blind, no? I think the obsolete meaning of the word was completely blind, so it was once a synonym of blind. Oct 9, 2007

  • sionnach So what's the difference, if any, between blind and purblind? Oct 9, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for purblind.

‘purblind’ has been looked up 1994 times, loved by 4 people, added to 42 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.