Sc. [Of uncertain origin: see BELLY-BLIND.]
1. In ballads, the name of a benevolent household demon or familiar spirit. (See Child, Eng. & Sc. Ballads, I. 67; Grimm, Teut. Myth. (Eng. ed.), II. 473.)
a. 1802. Willie’s Ladye, xiv. (in Scott, Minstr.). Then out and spak the Billy Blind, He spak aye in a gude time.
a. 1806. R. Jamieson, Pop. Ball., II. 130 (Jam.). Up it starts the Billy Blin, And stood at her bed feet.
2. The game of ‘Blind-man’s-buff’; = BELLY-BLIND. Hence, Billyblinder, he who blindfolds the chief actor in this game; fig. a hoodwinker.
1822. Hogg, Perils Man, III. 387 (Jam.). Ay weel I wat that’s little short of a billyblinder.
