blindside
verbEtymology From blind + side.
1
To attack (a person) on his or her blind side.
- The robbers crept out of the forest and blindsided the traveller.
- What isn't so gimmicky is the Aggro System, where you draw fire onto yourself by acting aggressive, while your partner sneaks off blindsiding distracted enemies. Aggro depends on how big your current weapon is and how often you act aggressive.2008 April 23, GameAxis Unwired, page 54:
2
Figuratively, Informal To catch off guard; to take by surprise.
- He had completed his plan to develop a new office building, but was blindsided by the sudden drop in real estate values.
- Mr. Hassan offered Ms. Huynh $20 million in Google stock — less than 10 percent of his shares — and half of three Bay Area real estate properties: houses in Palo Alto and San Francisco, and a commercial building in Menlo Park. She felt blindsided and hurt. She refused.2021 August 20, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Who Gets the L.L.C.? Inside a Silicon Valley Billionaire’s Divorce.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
2 more examples
- But when they did arrive at 9am on Thursday, they were still able to blindside the Chelsea hierarchy. On Wednesday, they had certainly not anticipated the imposition of them the following morning.2022 March 11, David Hytner, “Chelsea are in crisis but there is no will to leave club on their knees”, in The Guardian:
- The announcement blindsided employees, many of whom learned of the sudden ouster from an internal announcement and the company’s public facing blog.2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- blindsider