turn a blind eye
/ˈtɜɹn ə ˌblaɪ̯nd ˈaɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.35 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
2
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To deliberately or knowingly ignore, overlook, or refuse to acknowledge something, especially when improper or unpleasant; to look the other way.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The mother turned a blind eye to her son’s mischief as she expected him not to repeat it."
- "The great Advantage of thus vvalking by Faith is, that it vvill help us […] to turn the deaf Ear, and the blind Eye to all thoſe Pomps and Vanities of the VVorld vvhich vve renounc'd at our Baptiſm, and to have it no longer in our Hearts, but under our Feet."
- "[…] I must say that for some reasons we wanted such a person very much, and find her very useful, so I turn a blind eye and a deaf ear every now and then, and we get on marvellously well."
- "I do not speak of portraiture in marble. In this my countrymen, without having produced any really very great work, by the old standards, make a respectable show, as compared with the average portrait sculpture of the day of other nations. In saying this, however, we must turn a blind eye to a considerable number of statues of our distinguished citizens which even more lamentably exhibit the defects arising from ignorance of modeling and design, impatience of study and self-conceit, than the ideal compositions by the same hands, because the contrasts between the ill-constructed effigy and the familiar living man, to the spectator, is too palpably unpleasant to be long overlooked."
- "A blacker thing than blood's own dye / Weighed down great Hawkins on the sea; / And Nelson turned his blindest eye / On Naples and on liberty."
- "The party's top official in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, tweeted at the time that the police force was "turning a blind eye" to loyalist paramilitaries—those engaging in violence as part of a decades-long fight to maintain the region’s status as part of the United Kingdom—"while targeting those laying flowers on the anniversary of loved ones.""
Etymology
Probably from the idea of a person turning to look at something but not seeing it, as if their eyes are blind. The term is frequently claimed to originate from an incident during the First Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801, when Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) was ordered by Admiral Hyde Parker (1739–1807) through signal flags to discontinue naval action against a force of the Dano-Norwegian Navy. Nelson, who had been blinded in one eye early in his career, said to his flag captain Thomas Foley (1757–1833), “You know, Foley, I have only one eye—I have a right to be blind sometimes.” He then put his telescope to his blind eye and, remarking “I really do not see the signal,” continued the assault which ended in a British victory. However, this is not the source of the term as the Oxford English Dictionary records uses dating to the 17th and 18th centuries.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *terh₁-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɜɹn ə ˌblaɪ̯nd ˈaɪ̯/
- British English: /ˈtɜːn ə ˌblaɪ̯nd ˈaɪ̯/
Usage
Inflected Forms
turns a blind eye (present, singular)
turning a blind eye (participle, present)
turned a blind eye (participle, past)
turned a blind eye (past)
turn the blind eye (alternative, archaic)