auront des dents, i.e., when cocks and hens have teeth.
To go it blind.—A luminous figure of speech to convey the idea of entering upon an undertaking without thought as to the result, or inquiry beforehand. This is one of the many slang expressions which owe their origin to the American game of poker, the special form of which known as blind poker, where the cards are betted upon before being looked at, being responsible for the phrase now in question. Cf., also Blind (subs.).
1848. J. Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., p. 118— 'to impress on the popular mind The comfort and wisdom of goin' it BLIND.'
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 328. Blind Poker has given rise to the very common phrase, to go it blind, used whenever an enterprise is undertaken without previous inquiry.
1882. General Sherman, Memoirs, vol. I., p. 342. I know that in Washington I am incomprehensible, because at the outset of the war I would not go it blind, and rush headlong into a war unprepared and with an utter ignorance of its extent and purpose.
1888. Chicago Ledger, May 12. 'And so you've married a jewel, have you, Tom?' 'I have, for a fact, Dick.' 'Lucky dog! You're a man in a million. Mighty few go it blind and fare as well as you've done.' 'I didn't go it blind. I employed a detective, and he managed to get board in the family.'
Blind Cheeks, subs. (common).—The posteriors. [The derivation is from an obvious simile.] Among English Synonyms are—Two fat cheeks and ne'er a nose; blind Cupid; ampersand; cheeks; arse; corybungo; dopey; droddum; dummock; feak; bum; nock (i.e., 'a notch'); round mouth; windmill; blind-eye; monocular eyeglass.
French Synonyms. Un borgne (low: 'a one-eyed person'); un cyclope (the allusion is mythological—from Cyclops, the one-eyed giant, whose optic was placed in the middle of the forehead); la rose des vents; un piffe; un pignard; boite aux ordures. German Synonym. Acherponim (from Hebrew achar ponim; literally 'the face at the back'). For other synonyms, see Bum.
Blind Drunk, adj. phr. (common).—Very intoxicated; so drunk as to be unable to see better than a blind man. Americans say, 'So drunk as not to be able to see through a ladder.' For synonyms, see Screwed.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil or the Two Nations, p. 350. Hang me if I wasn't blind drunk at the end of it.
Blinder. To take a blinder, phr. (thieves').—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.
Blind Eye, subs. (common).—The podex.—See Blind cheeks.
Blind Half Hundred, subs. (military).—The Fiftieth Regiment of Foot; from so many men suffering from ophthalmia during the Egyptian campaign [1801]; also the Dirty Half Hundred from the men in action wiping their faces with their black facings during the Peninsula War. Half Hundred is an adaptation of the number of the regiment—the Fiftieth. The corps is also called the 'Gallant Fiftieth,' from its gallantry at the battle of Vimiera, 1808.
1871. Chambers' Journal, No. 417, p. 803. The Dirty Half Hundred was
