Meaning
To deliberately ignore an unpleasant or dangerous situation in the hope that it will go away, rather than confront or deal with it. The phrase implies wilful self-deception or cowardly avoidance rather than innocent oversight, and it is almost always critical of the person described. Informal and disapproving; nearly always a criticism of someone else's avoidance. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase rests on an ancient false belief about ostriches. Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 AD) says the bird imagines that once it has thrust its head and neck into a bush its whole body is concealed; Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC, offered a kinder version in which the ostrich shelters its head as the weakest part of its body. Real ostriches do neither - they lower the head while feeding and may lie flat to avoid notice - but the emblem of self-blinding folly stuck. In English the simile appears in 1623 ('Like the Austridge, who hiding her little head, supposeth her great body obscured'), and thrusting or hiding the head 'into the sand' recurs in 1792-93 magazine and clerical writing and in 1819 election speeches. 'Bury' simply became the standard verb in place of hide, thrust, and stick.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- bury one's head in the sand
- have your head in the sand
- hide your head in the sand
- stick your head in the sand
Usage Examples
- Management buried its head in the sand while the safety complaints piled up.
- You cannot hide your head in the sand over this - the audit begins on Monday.
- Critics accused the ministry of burying its head in the sand over coastal erosion.