turn a blind eye

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English

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WOTD – 24 March 2024

Etymology

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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[1][2][3] 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,”[4] 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.[5]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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turn a blind eye (third-person singular simple present turns a blind eye, present participle turning a blind eye, simple past and past participle turned a blind eye)

  1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To deliberately or knowingly ignore, overlook, or refuse to acknowledge something, especially when improper or unpleasant; to look the other way.
    Synonyms: close one's eyes, (obsolete) connive, shut one's eyes, wink
    The mother turned a blind eye to her son’s mischief as she expected him not to repeat it.
    • 1698, John Norris, “A Discourse of Walking by Faith. In Two Parts.”, in Practical Discourses upon Several Divine Subjects, […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Manship […], and J. Jones […], →OCLC, part I, pages 222–223:
      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.
      This is the earliest occurrence of the term recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.
    • 1823 October 1 (date written), Martha Wilmot, More Letters from Martha Wilmot: Impressions of Vienna, 1819–1829, […], London: Macmillan and Co., published 1935, →OCLC, page 197:
      […] 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.
    • 1880 October 11, James Jackson Jarves, “Future American art: The growth of truer feeling and sounder methods”, in The New York Times, volume XXX, number 9076, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2, column 4:
      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.
    • [1915, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “[War Poems.] Blessed are the Peacemakers.”, in Poems, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1916, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 32:
      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.]
    • 2023 September 5, Megan Specia, “Northern Ireland police chief resigns amid mounting scandals”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-11-16:
      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."
    • 2023 December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-01-08:
      She [Emmeline Taylor] said, facing a cost of living crisis, many consumers were more willing to "turn a blind eye" to stolen food.

Usage notes

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In early use, the term was often employed in conjunction with turn a deaf ear.[5]

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Robert Hendrickson (1997) “turn a blind eye”, in The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, →ISBN, page 683.
  2. ^ “turn a blind eye to”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.
  3. ^ Gary Martin (1997–) “Turn a blind eye”, in The Phrase Finder.
  4. ^ Tom Pocock (1968) “Carnage at Copenhagen”, in Nelson and His World, London: Thames & Hudson, published 1974, →ISBN, page 96.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 “to turn a (also †the) blind eye, phrase” under “blind, adj., n.1, and adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, November 2023.

Further reading

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  • turning a blind eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • Christine Ammer (2001) “turn a blind eye”, in Linda Butler, Julia Penelope, editors, American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms for Students of English, Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 391, column 2.
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