no ver tres en un burro

Spanish

Etymology

Literally, “not see three on a donkey”. The story goes that in the beginning of the 20th century in Andalusia, to test someone's sight, a person was given a photo with three people sitting on a donkey. If the person could not make them out, they would have been declared to have had bad sight.

Verb

no ver tres en un burro (first-person singular present no veo tres en un burro, first-person singular preterite no vi tres en un burro, past participle no visto tres en un burro)

1. (idiomatic) to be blind as a bat

Further reading

• “no ver tres en un burro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014