bury one's head in the sand

English

Etymology

A reference to the imagined habit of the ostrich burying its head when threatened. See also head in the sand.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

bury one's head in the sand (third-person singular simple present buries one's head in the sand, present participle burying one's head in the sand, simple past and past participle buried one's head in the sand)

1. (idiomatic) To deliberately ignore the reality of a situation; to pretend a problem does not exist.
   • 1950 January, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 13:

     Now this doubtness is an unhappy state of affairs to the lover of the steam locomotive, but we cannot, like the proverbial ostrich, bury our heads in the sand and refuse to face facts.

Translations

to deliberately ignore the reality of a situation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 採取鴕鳥政策／采取鸵鸟政策 (cǎiqǔ tuóniǎo zhèngcè)

• Dutch: de kop in het zand steken
• Finnish: pistää päänsä pensaaseen
• French: faire l’autruche (fr), se voiler la face (fr)
• German: den Kopf in den Sand stecken (de)
• Hebrew: טָמַן רֹאשׁוֹ בַּחוֹל (he) (tamán roshó baḥól)
• Hungarian: homokba dugja a fejét
• Italian: nascondere la testa sotto la sabbia, fare finta di niente, fare come lo struzzo
• Korean: 눈 가리고 아웅 (ko) (nun garigo aung)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stikke hodet i sanden (no), strutse

• Polish: chować głowę w piasek (pl)
• Romanian: se ascunde după deget
• Russian: пря́тать го́лову в песо́к (ru) (prjátatʹ gólovu v pesók)
• Swedish: sticka huvudet i sanden (sv)

See also

• fiddle while Rome burns