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Glite Dictionary
🫥 To fit in 🥣 To mix evenly
to blend in

to blend in

20 3.7
Be similar to people or things around you so you are not noticed
  • phrasal verb
  • /blɛnd ɪn/
translation icon : mezclarse
  • A good detective knows how to blend in with the locals, so his prey never sees him coming.
  • blend in well

Kevin Hart genuinely blends in with those boys so well.

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Examples

  • You will blend in, trust me.

    Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)

  • Look, if you blend in, nobody's going to mess with you, OK?

  • Be careful who you talk to, and try to blend in.

    My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

  • Somewhere south of the South, where their little family might blend in.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • Visiting hours had just begun, so he was able to blend in easily with the many other non-staff people moving about.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Sometimes it can be comforting to blend in and be ignored, and as a celebrity, you lose that.

    Blog text (3)

  • In high school, I felt like that mouse that gets dropped into the snake cage and just kinda sits there, frozen, trying to blend in.

    Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

  • PAPPAS smiles, standing there in his beachwear, trying to blend in.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The gardener chose flowers that would blend in with the natural landscape.

  • To avoid drawing attention, he decided to blend in with the crowd at the festival.

Synonyms

to fit in
vsto blend in
172 3.0

Be part of a group and feel accepted by others

focuses on appearing like surroundings to avoid being noticed
to assimilate
vsto blend in
77 6.1

Become similar to other people by joining their group and learning their customs

is about appearing like surroundings rather than deep cultural integration
to mingle
vsto blend in
64 3.1

Join and talk with other people at a meeting or party

is about appearing like surroundings rather than active social interaction
to camouflage
vsto blend in
23 5.9

To hide something by making it look like its surroundings

is used for looking similar to surroundings without active disguise

Antonyms

to stand out
244 3.2

To be easy to notice because you are different or better

to differ
152 2.6

To be different from another person or thing in some way

How Noticeable

to stand out
244 3.2
to blend in
20 3.7
to fly under the radar
  • Informal
9 5.9
to disappear
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

blend in infinitive
blended in past
blended in past participle
blending in present participle
blends in third person singular

Morphology

blend + in

The meaning 'to fit in / appear similar to the surroundings' is directly derivable from combining 'blend' (to mix/unify) with 'in' (into/among), since the phrase literally describes mixing into a group or environment. This is a common verb + particle/preposition pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would very likely infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Blend in paints the picture of a person or object joining the background, like someone wearing the same colours as others or using camouflage, where blend means to mix and in means into the group. So blend in means 'to fit in' or 'not be noticed'.