turn a blind eye

Meaning

1. Oxford100% of films

   to pretend not to notice sth bad that is happening, so you do not have to do anything about it

   They bribe the guards, the guards turn a blind eye.

   I ain't never known an inspector what wouldn't turn a blind eye.

In the movies · 4

• They bribe the guards, the guards turn a blind eye.The Pianist2002
• I ain't never known an inspector what wouldn't turn a blind eye.The Lighthouse2019
• I have to work these places. The bar boy turns a blind eye but the manager doesn't.Mona Lisa1986
• And in return, I'd like you to turn a blind eye to what I have to do.Road to Perdition2002
• But Ashcroft's Justice Department turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.Fahrenheit 9/112004
• If you knew and turned a blind eye, you have enabled a crime.Notes on a Scandal2006
• Americans always turned a blind eye to what we'd done to our own.The Butler2013
• and it was more that the world turned a blind eye onSpielberg2017

Learn it in full scenes

• Spielberg2017
  • Spielberg Hides the Shark
  • Spielberg Takes the Camera
  • Spielberg Gets His Universal Contract

From the same entry

• blind as a bat
• the blind leading the blind
• not a blind bit blindest bit of
• love is blind
• blind with science
• eff and blind
• blind drunk
• rob blind
• swear blind

More idioms

• like hell
• out of your way
• cut to the chase
• to myself
• hold it
• on television
• in the distance
• be on the telephone
• more like
• be sick
• face to face with
• shame on you