blind as a bat

Idioms and Phrases

Quite blind; also, unaware. For example, Without my glasses I'm blind as a bat , or I had no idea they wanted me to take over his job; I was blind as a bat . This simile, based on the erroneous idea that the bat's erratic flight means it cannot see properly, has survived even though it is now known that bats have a sophisticated built-in sonar system. [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

Abel wished that its feathers would turn to lead so it could fall on its head from the world’s tallest tree, that its beak would rot and become useless even for eating mush, that it should be blind as a bat and fly into a dragon’s flaming mouth, that it should sink in quicksand mixed with broken bottles, very slowly, to prolong its suffering, and much more of the same sort.

From Literature

If Barrack was really a witness to Trump’s management style in that period, then he must have been either blind as a bat or a consummate liar.

From Los Angeles Times

“What we did is we used a lot of strobe lights. We wanted you to be blind as a bat when you came out of it. I wanted to screw up your vision. It was just a black tunnel, and we’d turn out all the lights and screw up your eyes. I wanted you to be all messed up.”

From Los Angeles Times

“They’re blind. That’s why they say ‘blind as a bat.’

From Literature

“I was blind as a bat, but I always knew where the target was,” Cooper says.

From The New Yorker