to turn a blind eye
41
5.4
- idiom
:
hacer la vista gorda
- We cannot turn a blind eye to this and let these egregious human rights violations go unchecked.
- the government turns a blind eye
- no longer turn a blind eye
So you cannot turn a blind eye to poor communication.
- So you cannot turn a blind eye to poor communication.
- It was a time where we just turned a blind eye.
- I think there is a culture in the police that turns a blind eye.
- But of course they condoned it by, you know, by turning a blind eye.
- But at what stage the people start turning a blind eye to children being raped?
- And now suddenly when it comes to corruption, you, you turn a blind eye to what is happening in, in this world.
- And, and I feel like that's somewhat of the answer, but we can't turn a blind eye.
- We've, you know, these things have occurred throughout recent history, and yet we we turn a blind eye to the one that is staring us right in the face.
- But what you're doing is calling yourself a journalist and attacking one side and turning a blind eye or worse to the other side.
- We cannot turn a blind eye to this and let these egregious human rights violations go unchecked.
- In other words, New York is willing to turn a blind eye if you just hop the subway fair turnstile because we don't want to keep punishing criminals.
- The problem wasn't do they turn a blind eye to the two or three grams?
- Funny, but David Cameron can stuck a pig and no one turns a blind eye.
- And being clear with your intentions in life does not mean you turn a blind eye on lessons and past relationships.
- The culture turns a blind eye because they valued money more than the culture, bro.
Examples
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For too long now, we've turned a blind eye as millions slid into greater insecurity.
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- The cops turned a blind eye to it.
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So you cannot turn a blind eye to poor communication.
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And I guess I just turned a blind eye to it.
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But you have to turn a blind eye to that and help him
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The chief and I will turn a blind eye to the matter.
Fiction book (1998) -
The banks turned a blind eye to the source of this wealth.
Academic text (1994) -
Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries.
Blog text (6) -
Governments issue permits for legal mining and mercury use, and turn a blind eye to illegal activity.
Blog text (2) -
We cannot turn a blind eye to the increasing number of accidents on the highway.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Choose not to pay attention to someone or something
243
2.9
To not notice someone or something you should see
69
4.7
To ignore something wrong on purpose instead of reporting it
38
5.9
To ignore a small mistake to avoid an argument
28
4.1
To ignore someone or something on purpose
13
4.5
Ignore a person or thing because you think they are not important
8
7.7
To hide a problem instead of dealing with it openly
5
5.6
To act as if you do not see something to avoid making someone feel embarrassed
4
6.1
Refuse to listen to someone who gives advice or warnings
1
7.5
To pretend not to see something bad to show approval
To secretly allow something wrong to happen
To ignore an obvious problem and pretend it is not there
To ignore or hide problems instead of dealing with them
Antonyms
How Responsible
197
5.0
686
1.6
- Formal
552
4.3
290
3.5
41
5.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'turn', 'blind' and 'eye' transparently evoke the image of deliberately not looking, so a learner who knows the words can infer a general sense of refusing to see or look. However, the precise idiomatic force — deliberately ignoring wrongdoing or unacceptable behaviour — is a metaphorical extension and not fully predictable without exposure (though many languages have similar expressions), so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Turn a blind eye comes from a famous story about Admiral Nelson, who had a blind eye and put his telescope to that eye so he would not see an order to retreat. One popular story says he did this on purpose to ignore the signal, and that's why turn a blind eye means 'to deliberately ignore' or 'pretend not to notice' something wrong.