blondin meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

blondin

nounalso spelled Blondin

Etymology From French blondin. Named after the French tightrope walker and acrobat Charles Blondin (1824–1897).

A specialized type of material ropeway that incorporates a mechanism to raise and lower loads vertically from the suspended ropeway.

While it is possible with using a blondin to set up the two concrete mixing plants with concretes of different compositions, being placed simultaneously in two distinct zones of the same lift, it is necessary in the case of the conveyor to concrete the two zones successively, which makes it necessary to have vertical shuttering which would not be required in the case of concreting by the aid of the blondin.1955, Fifth International Congress on Large Dams, Paris: Éditions Science et Industrie, →OCLC, page 233:
His Irish labourers were accommodated on the north bank of the bridge when blondins were used to carry men and materials across the river.1982, “Correspondence”, in Heritage, number 2, Salisbury: History Society of Zimbabwe, →OCLC, page 58:

1 more example

The fish was brought up by a blondin, a cable crane that operated by hauling up and lowering down a hanging crane pulley when it was run back and forth up and down the suspended cable. […] Again the salmon was brought up from below by blondin.2021, Mike Smylie, “North Coast, East Coast, and Home”, in Voices from the Shoreline: The Ancient & Ingenious Traditions of Coastal Fishing, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: The History Press, →ISBN:

noun

Etymology From French Blondin. The noun is after the French tightrope walker Charles Blondin (1824–1897).

Idiomatic An expert tightrope walker.

My invention has cost me some money, some anxiety, and condemned my little ones to all the miseries of poverty and banishment in the bush, whereas if I had been a successful cricketer, a good bowler, or a rifle shooter without pluck, a Blondin, or an acrobat, I and mine would have escaped these ills.1899 November 1, R[ichard] B[owyer] Smith, quotee, “Wheatgrowing in South Australia”, in A[lexander] J[enyns] Boyd, editor, The Queensland Agricultural Journal, […], volume V, Brisbane, Qld.: Edmund Gregory, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 457:
A step or two upwards, then one to the right, and my exploring hand was able to touch a small, sloping, scree-covered ledge. This was covered by a film of ice, which I cleared as well as I could with one hand while supporting myself with the other. Having at last decided that a step was justifiable, I balanced up with the delicacy, but scarcely the grace, of a Blondin and a moment later was on the ledge.1938, Frank S[ydney] Smythe, “The Mana Peak: The Reconnaissance”, in The Valley of Flowers, uniform edition, London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, published 1947, →OCLC, pages 220–221:

2 more examples

A daily newspaper is a great lake in which intellectual elephants can swim and lambs can paddle. Accordingly, the columnist is a Blondin, treading a tightrope over Victoria Falls between obscurity and triviality, condescension and ostentation, and often falling into the foaming minestrone.2013, Philip Howard, “What is the correct term?”, in Modern Manners: The Essential Guide to Correct Behaviour and Etiquette, London: The Robson Press, →ISBN, page 273:
But the several schemes that I imagined for passing a message from the train were so doubtful of success, or required the sure-footedness of a Blondin, that I discarded each of them in turn.2015, Jeremy Kingston, “The Nubile Bachelor”, in Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Batavia […], London: Robert Hale, →ISBN, page 79:

Alternative letter-case form of blondin.

Incised with painstaking delicacy and strength of vision into the single slab are four scenes: quarry rock-men in a pit with a Blondin (a carrying-cradle running on wire cables) above them; […]1997, Jim Perrin, “Heartland”, in Visions of Snowdonia: Landscape and Legend, London: BBC Books, →ISBN, page 130:
Thousands and thousands of steel-mesh bags were filled with boulders, swung into place by a Blondin and dumped one by one into the water until the channel was blocked.2001, Margaret Aitken, chapter 4, in In My Small Corner: Memories of an Orkney Childhood, Dalkeith, Midlothian: Scottish Cultural Press, →ISBN, page 38:

3 more examples

Once material arrived at the Lodge, it was shipped to the site by means of a ‘Blondin’ – an overhead ropeway named after the famous Frenchman Charles Blondin, who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope in 1859.2012, James Crawford, “Lowlands”, in Scotland’s Landscapes (The National Collection of Aerial Photography), Edinburgh: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, →ISBN, page 144:
There have been stage plays and songs about the French funambulist, street names, and a Welsh device dubbed a Blondin that carries rocks along a cable.2015, David Astle, “Why is Blondin like a prizefighter?”, in Riddledom: 101 Riddles and Their Stories, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, “Famous & Forgettable” section, page 229:
[T]he marshy ground is imprinted with the pattern of long gone railway sleepers. A stump of concrete stands high on the hillside. The remains of a Blondin, a cable lift once used to haul stone and rubble and spoil across the river.2016, Kellan Macinnes, “The Grave in the Woods”, in The Making of Mickey Bell, Dingwall, Highland: Sandstone Press, →ISBN, page 226: