blindman's buff

9.3

A children's game where a blindfolded player tries to catch and name other players

noun

: el juego del pañuelo

Laughing and stumbling, Sara tried to catch her friends in a lively game of blindman's buff.

Examples

We all took turns being blindfolded while playing blindman's buff during recess.
At the party, the children played blindman's buff in the garden until it started to rain.
We played blindman's buff in the backyard.
Have you ever played blindman's buff?
The children played blindman's buff in the backyard during their birthday party.
After putting on the blindfold, he stumbled around trying to catch his friends in blindman's buff.
To start the game of blindman's buff, she was spun around several times before being let loose to find her mates.

Synonyms

blindman's bluff

vsblindman's buff

5.6

A game where a blindfolded player tries to catch and guess who touched them

is identical in meaning but appears with the other spelling

Surface Forms

blindman's buff singular

blindman's buffs plural

Morphology

blindman's + buff

The element 'blindman's' (blind + man) partly signals the idea of a blindfolded person, so a learner could infer the involvement of a blindfolded player; however, 'buff' has no transparent, productive meaning here and the whole phrase is a conventionalized name for a specific children's game. Because the label is lexicalized and not fully predictable from its parts, it is only partially comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Blindman's buff may come from the simple picture of one player with their eyes covered, the blind man, trying to touch or tag the others because 'buff' once meant a quick touch. So the name fits the game: a blindfolded player tries to catch and guess who the others are.