Chapter Blaze to Blindmen's Dinner of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

of money varying from 10, and sometimes more. Such phrases as “going to Blenheim Steps,” meant going to be dissected, or unearthed from one's grave.

“The body-snatchers, they have come,
And made a snatch at me;
`Tis very hard them kind of men
Won't let a body be.
The cock it crows- I must be gone-
My William, we must part;
But I'll be yours in death although
Sir Astley has my heart.”
Hood: Mary's Ghost.

Bless He has not a [sixpence] to bless himself with, i.e. in his possession; wherewith to make himself happy. This expression may probably be traced to the time when coins were marked with a deeply- indented cross. Cf. To keep the devil out of one's pocket.

Blessing with three fingers is symbolical of the Trinity, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Blest I'll be blest if I do it. I am resolved not to do it. A euphemism for curst.
Blikiandabol [splendid misery]. The canopy of the goddess Hel or Hela (q.v.).

Blimber (Miss ). A blue-stocking, who knows the dead languages, and wears learned spectacles. She is the daughter of Dr. Blimber, a fossil school-master of the high and dry grammar type (Dickens: Dombey and Son.)

Blind That's a mere blind. A pretence; something ostensible to conceal a covert design. The metaphor is from window-blinds, which prevent outsiders from seeing into a room.
   Blind as a bat. A bat is not blind, but when it enters a room well lighted, it cannot see, and blunders about. It sees best, like a cat, in the dusk. (See Similes.)
   Blind as a beetle. Beetles are not blind, but the dor-beetle or hedge-chafer, in its rapid flight, will occasionally bump against one as if it could not see.
   Blind as a mole. Moles are not blind, but as they work underground, their eyes are very small. There is a mole found in the south of Europe, the eyes of which are covered by membranes, and probably this is the animal to which Aristotle refers when he says, “the mole is blind.” (See Similes.)
   Blind as an owl. Owls are not blind, but being night birds, they see better in partial darkness than in the full light of day. (See Similes.)
   You came on his blind side. His soft or tender-hearted side. Said of persons who wheedle some favour out of another. He yielded because he was not wide awake to his own interest.

“Lincoln wrote to the same friend that the nomination that the democrats on the blind side.”- Nicolay and Hay: Abraham Lincoln, vol. i. chap. xv. p. 275.

   Blind leaders of the blind. The allusion is to sect of the Pharisees, who were wont to shut their eyes when they walked abroad, and often ran their heads against a wall or fell into a ditch. (Matt xv. 14.)

The Blind
   Francesco Bello, called Il Cieco.
   Luigi Grotto, called Il Cieco, the Italian poet. (1541-1585.)
   Lieutenant James Holman, The Blind Traveller. (1787-1857.)
   Ludwig III Emperor of Germany, L'Aveugle. (880, 890-934.)

Blind Alley (A ). A “cul de sac,” an alley with no outlet. It is blind because it has no “eye” or passage through it.

Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green (The ). A public-house sign in the Whitechapel Road. (Hotten History of Sign-Boards.) (See Beggar. )

Blind Department (The ). In Post Office parlance, means that department where letters with incoherent, insufficient, or illegible addresses are examined, and, if possible, put upon the proper track for delivery. The clerk so employed is called “The Blind Man.”

“One of these addresses was “Santlings, Hilewite” (St. Helen's, Isle of Wight). I, myself, had one from France addressed, `A Mons. E. Cobham, brasseur, Angleterre,' and it reached me. Another address was `Haselfeach in no famtshare' (Hazelbeach, Northamptonshire).”