Search the Dictionary

To darken; to obscure to the eye or understanding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. Dryden. The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stillingfleet.

Making blind or as if blind; depriving of sight or of understanding; obscuring; as, blinding tears; blinding snow.

Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own. By his imperious mistress blindly led. Dryden.

A stupid fellow; a dolt; a person deficient in understanding. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head. Pope.

Like a block; deficient in understanding; stupid; dull. "Blockish Ajax." Shak. -- Block"ish*ly, adv. -- Block"ish*ness, n.

Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; stupid; -- opposed to acute. His wits are not so blunt. Shak.

The organ or seat of intellect; hence, the understanding. " My brain is too dull." Sir W. Scott.

Without understanding; silly; thougthless; witless. -- Brain"less*ness, n.

Disordered in the understanding; giddy; thoughtless. -- Brain"sick*ness, n.

buy pleasure with pain. Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. Prov. xxiii. 23. To buy again. See Againbuy. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To buy off. (a) To influence to compliance; to cause to bend or yield by some consideration; as, to buy off conscience. (b) To detach by a considerati…

The use of religious phraseology without understanding or sincerity; empty, solemn speech, implying what is not felt; hypocrisy. They shall hear no cant fromF. W. Robertson

The act of captivating. [R.] The captivation of our understanding. Bp. Hall.

he characteristics of a very young person, as innocence, obedience, trustfulness, limited understanding, etc. When I was child. I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1. Cor. xii. 11.

cause and effect is mental, and that sin, sickness, and death will be destroyed by a full understanding of the Divine Principle of Jesus' teaching and healing. The system was founded by Rev. Mary Baker Glover Eddy, of Concord, N. H., in 1866, and bases its teaching on the Scriptures as understood by its adherents.…

or bright; to clear up. Whosoever hath his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and understanding do clarify and break up in the discoursing with another. Bacon.

To render more quick or acute, as the understanding; to make perspicacious. Our common prints would clear up their understandings. Addison

Having a clear understanding; quick of perception; intelligent. "He was laborious and clear-headed." Macaulay. -- Clear"-head`ed*ness, n.

Having a clear physical or mental vision; having a clear understanding.

One who, or that which, clears. Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding. Addison.

Knowing, or apprehending by the understanding; as, cognitive power. South.