# What does ‘turn a blind eye’ mean?

To “turn a blind eye” means to pretend not to see something. Brewer's attributes the origin to Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801), who put his telescope to his blind eye and said he could not see the signal to withdraw.

## What it means

- Brewer's attributes the origin to Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801), who put his telescope to his blind eye and said he could not see the signal to withdraw.

## Action steps

1. Used of tolerated wrongdoing.
2. Example: Management turned a blind eye to the long lunches.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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