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I read a comment written by Participant X who was asked to be more respectful in criticizing someone's question on SE. X wrote

I'm truly sorry but I can't blinker myself that far down.

What does that mean? Where does the meaning you know (if any) come from?

I looked at thefreedictionary.com which covers multiple dictionaries, and I checked urbandictionary as well. I didn't come up with the slightest clue.

If there is more research I should do and show, please let me know.

If this word means nothing to anybody, then I'll conclude he just made it up and it's part of his personal repertoire of coined words that no one beyond his immediate circle understands.

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  • I think you are thinking of the alternative expression 'bunker up/down'. The Ngram gives no results for 'blinker up/down' but does return a response for 'bunker up/down'.
    – Nigel J
    May 8, 2018 at 0:51
  • @NigelJ - I'm not the person who wrote it! Do you mean that the person who wrote it might have been thinking of bunker down? But at any rate, from what I know of bunker down, it doesn't make sense with his sentence.
    – aparente001
    May 8, 2018 at 2:10

1 Answer 1

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to blinker TFD

to put blinkers on; to obscure with or as if with blinkers; Having or showing a narrow or limited outlook or point of view. ‘a blinkered attitude’

"I'm truly sorry but I can't blinker myself that far down"

Meaning:

I cannot ignore, blind myself to this fact, be so myopic, ignore, look away and/or down.

Etymology: in the figurative sense, 1849, from horses wearing blinkers to limit the range of their vision (see blinker). etymonline

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  • Thanks. Can you talk about the "down" part? Was that just creativity on his part, or is it a thing?
    – aparente001
    May 7, 2018 at 18:03
  • One definition of "down" is 2. to or at a lower level of intensity, volume, or activity. "keep the noise down". ( via Google)
    – Xanne
    May 7, 2018 at 18:23
  • What exactly is “Ver” supposed to mean in the last line? (Note that while blinker is indeed the present tense of the Danish verb blinke, the English verb blinker is derived from the noun blinker, which is quite regularly formed within English from the verb to blink. The Danish verb is cognate with the English one, but it is not its etymological origin.)
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    May 7, 2018 at 18:25
  • @JanusBahsJacquet my mistake ... edited
    – lbf
    May 7, 2018 at 19:01
  • i edited... and @xanne added a good comment
    – lbf
    May 7, 2018 at 19:05

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