blinker
/ˈblɪŋkə
/noun
1 (blinkers) chiefly British A pair of small leather screens attached to a horse’s bridle to prevent it seeing sideways and behind and being startled.Storming Home also proved the value of the controversial sheepskin cheekpieces which are now regularly fitted to horses who find blinkers and visors too claustrophobic....
- The horse's owner puts leather blinkers close to its eyes so that it can only see what its master wants it to see, not look here or there.
- This year's fuelled by such high octane horsepower you'll need to pull in the reins and wear blinkers to avoid cantering off course in all directions.
1.1Something which prevents someone from gaining a full understanding of a situation: we are having a fresh look at ourselves without blinkers...
- We must remove our blinkers to allow a fuller account of Aboriginal history to unfold.
- Their prettiness are in the selfish mind and in the untrained eyes behind the blinkers of this blind beholder!
- I met him at a point in my life when I was just ready to look at the world and it was like he took my blinkers off.
2 (usually blinkers) A vehicle indicator or other device that gives out an intermittent light: the cars queued up with blinkers flashing...
- I particularly liked the vehicle's side blinker.
- This is just some stupid road with a red light on and my blinker is saying that I am headed for the left.
- As we merge into traffic, he uses both his blinker and an arm signal.
verb [with object]
1Put blinkers on (a horse): Brown Boy will be blinkered for the first time at York...
- As any horse-cab driver in downtown Cairo knows, a horse must be blinkered to navigate the streets, or else the traffic will cause it to shy.
- Advocaat's patience with the Italian has appeared infinite, but one wonders whether pride has blinkered the manager's approach.
1.1Cause (someone) to have a narrow or limited outlook on a situation: university education blinkers researchers so that they see poverty in terms of their own specialization...
- As someone has already said, his climb up the ministerial pole sadly blinkers him against anything that may dent his progress.
- Our adversarial political system, coupled to a five-yearly electoral cycle, is sadly blinkering many politicians and commentators to one stark fact.
- We are blinkered by outdated stereotypes and we're reluctant to move beyond them, because at the end of the day we've never forgiven Germany for unleashing Hitler on Europe.
