"peaky blinder" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "From the name of a street gang in Birmingham, the Peaky Blinders, who got their name From the peaked caps their members wore, and from blinder (“exceptional performance”) or from the practice of pulling a victims hat over his eyes so that he could not identify his attacker. There is a folk etymology claiming the \"blinder\" part of the name comes from the practice of stitching razor blades or weights into the peak of the cap and using it as a weapon to blind one's opponent, but this has been shown to be apocryphal.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "peaky blinders",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "peaky blinder (plural peaky blinders)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 17 34",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 16 34",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "50 16 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Robert Hall Best, William John Davis, Charles Perks, The Brassworkers of Berlin and of Birmingham: A Comparison, page 35:",
          "text": "They return from camp with new boots, shirt, stockings and money; part of which is spent in excess on their first night's return after training and part goes to purchase a pair of “peaky blinder” trousers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984, Midland History - Volumes 9-12, page 108:",
          "text": "In Birmingham the 'peaky-blinder' and 'slogger' gangs were particularly notorious.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "There is a reference in the Birmingham Daily Gazette to a 'hooligan outrage' in Newton Row in January 1907 - which had formerly been a peaky blinder stronghold - when three men of the peaky blinder type savagely attacked and robbed a businessman late at night, but there appears to be no mention of assaults or fights by peaky blinders after that..",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Dick Hobbs, Mischief, Morality and Mobs, page 94:",
          "text": "As Arthur Matthison recalled (1937:63), the peaky blinder wore: Bell-bottomed trousers secured by a buckle belt, hob-nailed boots, a jacket of sorts, a gaudy scarf and a billy-cock hat with a long elongated brim.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A member of the Peaky Blinders gang. They operated in Birmingham from the end of the 19th century until after the First World War. Gang members had a distinctive appearance: close-cropped hair, bell-bottomed trousers, peaked caps, and a white scarf knotted at the throat."
      ],
      "id": "en-peaky_blinder-en-noun-42~uXaT1",
      "links": [
        [
          "Peaky Blinders",
          "Peaky Blinders"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical) A member of the Peaky Blinders gang. They operated in Birmingham from the end of the 19th century until after the First World War. Gang members had a distinctive appearance: close-cropped hair, bell-bottomed trousers, peaked caps, and a white scarf knotted at the throat."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, The Puritan - Volume 5, page 206:",
          "text": "So, in London, birds of a feather must flock together, willy nilly, silk hat and frock coat must go with white gloves and brown sables, “peaky blinder and “ choker \" must associate with crop fringed hair, ear curls, and rakish three feathered hat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1968, Maurice Wiggin, The Memoirs of a Maverick, page 30:",
          "text": "You could practically hear the rusty wheels whirring round beneath his black peaky blinder.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "The peak of the peaky-blinder was usually slit open and pennies or razor-blades or pieces of slate inserted and stitched up again. The caps, peaky-blinders, were used in fighting to be whipped off the head and swiped across the opponent's eyes, momentarily blinding them or slashing the cheeks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A peaked cap like that worn by a peaky blinder, especially when worn with the peak pulled down to the side of the head."
      ],
      "id": "en-peaky_blinder-en-noun-FhCNggEa",
      "links": [
        [
          "peaked",
          "peaked"
        ],
        [
          "cap",
          "cap"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A peaked cap like that worn by a peaky blinder, especially when worn with the peak pulled down to the side of the head."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Birmingham English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, The Spectator - Volume 101, page 781:",
          "text": "Probably the \"hooligan\" of London need not cost more to redeem than the \" ike \" of Manchester or the \"peaky blinder\" of Birmingham; the differences in expense lie in the method.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1914, Pharmaceutical Journal - Volume 37, page 262:",
          "text": "Hundreds of girls and youths, mainly of the “ peaky blinder ” type, parade the streets—sometimes half a dozen arm-in-arm across the pavements.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "There is a reference in the Birmingham Daily Gazette to a 'hooligan outrage' in Newton Row in January 1907 - which had formerly been a peaky blinder stronghold - when three men of the peaky blinder type savagely attacked and robbed a businessman late at night, but there appears to be no mention of assaults or fights by peaky blinders after that..",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964, Charles Frederick Victor Smout, The story of the progress of medicine, page 137:",
          "text": "Nights on the district were nightmares. Peaky-blinder warrens down which the police daren't venture, except in twos; drunken gamp midwives under the bed, and often a race betwen half-an-inch of a guttering candle and a dawn two hours away, the patient indulging in a P.P.H., little or no water and no one to send for help.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any ruffian or street gang member."
      ],
      "id": "en-peaky_blinder-en-noun-XLOcykNo",
      "links": [
        [
          "ruffian",
          "ruffian"
        ],
        [
          "street gang",
          "street gang"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Birmingham",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Birmingham) Any ruffian or street gang member."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Peaky Blinders"
  ],
  "word": "peaky blinder"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the name of a street gang in Birmingham, the Peaky Blinders, who got their name From the peaked caps their members wore, and from blinder (“exceptional performance”) or from the practice of pulling a victims hat over his eyes so that he could not identify his attacker. There is a folk etymology claiming the \"blinder\" part of the name comes from the practice of stitching razor blades or weights into the peak of the cap and using it as a weapon to blind one's opponent, but this has been shown to be apocryphal.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "peaky blinders",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "peaky blinder (plural peaky blinders)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, Robert Hall Best, William John Davis, Charles Perks, The Brassworkers of Berlin and of Birmingham: A Comparison, page 35:",
          "text": "They return from camp with new boots, shirt, stockings and money; part of which is spent in excess on their first night's return after training and part goes to purchase a pair of “peaky blinder” trousers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984, Midland History - Volumes 9-12, page 108:",
          "text": "In Birmingham the 'peaky-blinder' and 'slogger' gangs were particularly notorious.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "There is a reference in the Birmingham Daily Gazette to a 'hooligan outrage' in Newton Row in January 1907 - which had formerly been a peaky blinder stronghold - when three men of the peaky blinder type savagely attacked and robbed a businessman late at night, but there appears to be no mention of assaults or fights by peaky blinders after that..",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Dick Hobbs, Mischief, Morality and Mobs, page 94:",
          "text": "As Arthur Matthison recalled (1937:63), the peaky blinder wore: Bell-bottomed trousers secured by a buckle belt, hob-nailed boots, a jacket of sorts, a gaudy scarf and a billy-cock hat with a long elongated brim.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A member of the Peaky Blinders gang. They operated in Birmingham from the end of the 19th century until after the First World War. Gang members had a distinctive appearance: close-cropped hair, bell-bottomed trousers, peaked caps, and a white scarf knotted at the throat."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Peaky Blinders",
          "Peaky Blinders"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical) A member of the Peaky Blinders gang. They operated in Birmingham from the end of the 19th century until after the First World War. Gang members had a distinctive appearance: close-cropped hair, bell-bottomed trousers, peaked caps, and a white scarf knotted at the throat."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with archaic senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1899, The Puritan - Volume 5, page 206:",
          "text": "So, in London, birds of a feather must flock together, willy nilly, silk hat and frock coat must go with white gloves and brown sables, “peaky blinder and “ choker \" must associate with crop fringed hair, ear curls, and rakish three feathered hat.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1968, Maurice Wiggin, The Memoirs of a Maverick, page 30:",
          "text": "You could practically hear the rusty wheels whirring round beneath his black peaky blinder.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "The peak of the peaky-blinder was usually slit open and pennies or razor-blades or pieces of slate inserted and stitched up again. The caps, peaky-blinders, were used in fighting to be whipped off the head and swiped across the opponent's eyes, momentarily blinding them or slashing the cheeks.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A peaked cap like that worn by a peaky blinder, especially when worn with the peak pulled down to the side of the head."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "peaked",
          "peaked"
        ],
        [
          "cap",
          "cap"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) A peaked cap like that worn by a peaky blinder, especially when worn with the peak pulled down to the side of the head."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Birmingham English",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1908, The Spectator - Volume 101, page 781:",
          "text": "Probably the \"hooligan\" of London need not cost more to redeem than the \" ike \" of Manchester or the \"peaky blinder\" of Birmingham; the differences in expense lie in the method.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1914, Pharmaceutical Journal - Volume 37, page 262:",
          "text": "Hundreds of girls and youths, mainly of the “ peaky blinder ” type, parade the streets—sometimes half a dozen arm-in-arm across the pavements.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders - The Real Story of Birmingham's most notorious gangs.:",
          "text": "There is a reference in the Birmingham Daily Gazette to a 'hooligan outrage' in Newton Row in January 1907 - which had formerly been a peaky blinder stronghold - when three men of the peaky blinder type savagely attacked and robbed a businessman late at night, but there appears to be no mention of assaults or fights by peaky blinders after that..",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1964, Charles Frederick Victor Smout, The story of the progress of medicine, page 137:",
          "text": "Nights on the district were nightmares. Peaky-blinder warrens down which the police daren't venture, except in twos; drunken gamp midwives under the bed, and often a race betwen half-an-inch of a guttering candle and a dawn two hours away, the patient indulging in a P.P.H., little or no water and no one to send for help.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any ruffian or street gang member."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ruffian",
          "ruffian"
        ],
        [
          "street gang",
          "street gang"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Birmingham",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Birmingham) Any ruffian or street gang member."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Peaky Blinders"
  ],
  "word": "peaky blinder"
}