purblind
Americanadjective
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nearly or partially blind; dim-sighted.
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slow or deficient in understanding, imagination, or vision.
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Obsolete. totally blind.
adjective
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partly or nearly blind
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lacking in insight or understanding; obtuse
Synonym Usage
See blind.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of purblind
1250–1300; Middle English pur blind completely blind; see pure (in obsolete adv. sense), blind
Explanation
If you're purblind, you aren't able to see very well. This word is also used figuratively to describe someone who lacks insight or good judgment, like your purblind uncle who always gives foolish advice. These days, it's quite old-fashioned to describe someone as purblind, although you may come across the word in old books. When it first appeared around 1300, it was two words, pur blind (possibly from pure) and it meant "entirely blind." Later, it was used to mean "a blind person," and then "partially blind" — like your elderly, purblind poodle, who has become almost entirely dependent on her sense of smell.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When governments and their advisers are, as matter of course, using AI to improve their decision-making, expect fewer purblind, tunnel-visioned strategic decisions based on wishful thinking.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
The ECB's purblind refusal to reveal anything about the trip, as if it involved some top-secret military manoeuvres rather than just some abseiling and hiking, has goaded the media into a suspicious reaction.
From The Guardian • Oct. 19, 2010
Bette Davis, a peppery, small-town librarian, moves like Lady Bountiful among the worshipful peasants in her reading room, opening their purblind eyes to the treasure trove on the shelves around them.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ray Seldomridge Monrovia, Calif. The space program is the only Government agency working for our future; we shouldn't be so purblind to our children's needs as to cut its funds short.
From Time Magazine Archive
They pass hard, legitimate judgments, unlike the purblind guesses of men, fogged with romanticism and ignorance and bias and wish.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
