How is "eff and blind" used?

Question

A crossword clue in the Times 2 Jumbo Crossword Book—an assemblage of crosswords published in the Times—reads "use obscene language". The answer given is "eff and blind", confirmed by the entry in the Collins English Dictionary which is used as the authority for the crossword.
I'm a native (Australian) English speaker but the answer doesn't make any sense to me. An Australian driver might shout "Are you effing blind?" when another driver cuts across their path, but how is "eff and blind" actually used? The dictionary entry implies that the phrase is somehow the infinitive form of a verb ... but how is it used?

Showsni · Answer

You might say something like "Then he burst into the house, effing and blinding." As the dictionary suggests, it is a verb (or a verb phrase). It refers to swearing in general, without actually saying what words were said. "Effing" is from "fuck" (i.e. "the eff word"), whereas "blinding" is from swear words such as "cor blimey" (i.e. "God blind me"), but the actual swear words used could be anything. The general idea is that someone is using a lot of swear words - consider it similar to someone "cursing/swearing a blue streak".

Answered by Showsni on August 20, 2020

How is "eff and blind" used?

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