Language: en
Meaning: (intransitive,idiomatic)Todeliberatelyorknowinglyignore,overlook, orrefusetoacknowledgesomething, especially whenimproperorunpleasant; tolook the other way.[withto]Synonyms:close one's eyes,(obsolete)connive,shut one's eyes,winkThe motherturned a blind eyeto her son’s mischief as she expected him not to repeat it.1698,John Norris, “A Discourse of Walking by Faith. In Two Parts.”, inPractical Discourses upon Several Divine Subjects,[…], volume IV, London:[…]S[amuel]Manship[…], and J. Jones[…],→OCLC, part I,pages222–223:The great Advantage of thus vvalking by Faith is, that it vvill help us[…]toturnthe deaf Ear, andthe blind Eyeto all thoſe Pomps and Vanities of the VVorld vvhich vve renounc'd at our Baptiſm, and to have it no longer in ourHearts, but under ourFeet.This is the earliest occurrence of the term recorded in theOxford English Dictionary.1823October 1 (date written),Martha Wilmot,More Letters from Martha Wilmot: Impressions of Vienna, 1819–1829,[…], London:Macmillan and Co., published1935,→OCLC, page197:[…]I must say that for some reasons we wanted such a person very much, and find her very useful, so Iturn a blind eyeand a deaf ear every now and then, and we get on marvellously well.1880October 11,James Jackson Jarves, “Future American art: The growth of truer feeling and sounder methods”, inThe New York Times, volume XXX, number9076, 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 mustturn a blind eyeto 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.”, inPoems, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:John Lane Company, published1916,→OCLC, stanza 3,page32:A blacker thing than blood's own dye / Weighed down great Hawkins on the sea; / AndNelsonturned his blindest eye/ On Naples and on liberty.]2023September 5, Megan Specia, “Northern Ireland police chief resigns amid mounting scandals”, inThe New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.:The New York Times Company,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon16 November 2023: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."2023December 22, Robyn Vinter, “Britons increasingly turning to food black market, experts say”, inKatharine Viner, editor,The Guardian[2], London:Guardian News & Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, archived fromthe originalon8 January 2024:She [Emmeline Taylor] said, facing a cost of living crisis, many consumers were more willing to "turn a blind eye" to stolen food.
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