Chapter Blinkers to 1. Blow of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Blinkers to 1. Blow

Blinkers Spectacles; the allusion is to a horse's blinkers.

Block To block a Bill. In parliamentary language means to postpone or prevent the passage of a Bill by giving notice of opposition, and thus preventing its being taken after half-past twelve at night.

“By blocking the Bill [he] denied to two million persons the right of having votes.”- Contemporary Review, August, 1884, p. 171.

Blockhead A stupid person; one without brains. The allusion is to a wig maker's dummy or tête à perruque, on which he fits his wigs.

Your wit will not so soon out as another man's will, `tis strongly wedged up in a block-head”- Shakespeare Coriolanus, ii. 3.

Blood A buck, an aristocratic rowdy. A term taken from blood horses.

“A blood or dandy about town.”- Thackeray: Vanity Fair, chap. x. p. 49.

Blood Family descent.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men.”- Acts xvii. 26.

   Blood thicker than water. Relationship has a claim which is generally acknowledged. It is better to seek kindness from a kinsman than from a stranger. Water soon evaporates and leaves no mark behind; not so blood. So the interest we take in a stranger is thinner and more evanescent than that which we take in a blood relation.

“Weel! blude's thicker than water. She's welcome to the cheeses and the hams just the same.”- Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering.

   A Prince of the Blood. One of the Royal Family.
   Bad blood. Anger, quarrels; as, It stirs up bad blood. It provokes to ill-feeling and contention.
   Blue blood. (See under Blue.)
   Young blood. Fresh members; as, “To bring young blood into the concern.”
    In cold blood. Deliberately; not in the excitement of passion or of battle.
   It makes one's blood boil. It provokes indignation and anger.
   It runs in the blood. It is inherited or exists in the family race.

“It runs in the blood of our family.”- Sheridan: The Rivals, iv. 2.

   My own flesh and blood. My own children, brothers, sisters, or other near kindred.
   Laws written in blood. Demades said that the laws of Draco were written in blood, because every offence was punished by death.
   The field of blood. Aceldama (Acts i. 19), the piece of ground purchased with the blood-money of our Saviour, and set apart for the burial of strangers.
   The field of the battle of Cannæ, where Hannibal defeated the Romans, B.C. 216.
   Blood of our Saviour. An order of knighthood in Mantua; so called because their special office was to guard “the drops of the Saviour's blood” preserved in St. Andrew's church, Mantua.
   Blood and iron policy- i.e. war policy. No explanation needed.

Blood-guiltiness The guilt of murder.

Blood-horse (A ). A thorough-bred.

Bloodhound Figuratively, one who follows up an enemy with pertinacity. Bloodhounds used to be employed for tracking wounded game by the blood spilt; subsequently they were employed for tracking criminals and slaves who had made their escape, and were hunters of blood, not hunters by blood. The most noted breeds are the African, Cuban, and English.

Blood Money Money paid to a person for giving such evidence as shall lead to the conviction of another; money paid to the next of kin to induce him to forego his “right” of seeking blood for blood; money paid to a person for betraying another, as Judas was paid blood-money for showing the band the place where Jesus might be found.

Blood Relation (A ). One in direct descent from the same father or mother; one of the same family stock.