# turn a blind eye

Pronunciation: say "TURN uh blynd Y" US /ˈtɜɹn ə ˌblaɪ̯nd ˈaɪ̯/, UK /ˈtɜːn ə ˌblaɪ̯nd ˈaɪ̯/, AUS /ˈtɜːn ə ˌblɑe̯nd ˈɑe̯/

## Idiom

1. To deliberately ignore or refuse to acknowledge something improper or unpleasant, choosing to look the other way instead of acting on it.
   - Simple: To pretend not to see something wrong so you don't have to deal with it.
   - _Inspectors who turn a blind eye to violations put the whole public at risk._
   - _She turned a blind eye to her brother's growing debts for years._

## Origin

The phrase probably comes from the idea of a person looking toward something but not seeing it, as if their eyes were blind. It is often linked to a story about Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was blind in one eye and supposedly held his telescope to it to ignore an order during the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. However, this is not the true source, since the Oxford English Dictionary records uses dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/turn-a-blind-eye (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).