peaky blinder
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.14 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
noun
A peaked cap like that worn by a peaky blinder, especially when worn with the peak pulled down to the side of the head.
Archaic
noun
Any ruffian or street gang member.
name
Alternative form of peaky blinder (“gang member”).
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "In Birmingham the 'peaky-blinder' and 'slogger' gangs were particularly notorious."
- "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.."
- "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."
- "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."
- "You could practically hear the rusty wheels whirring round beneath his black peaky blinder."
Etymology
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.