What’s the Real Story Behind ‘Turning a Blind Eye’?

There are many ways in which people feign ignorance. Someone might close their eyes, stick their fingers in their ears, and shout, “La la la!” until the problem disappears. Another will merely turn their head and walk away. In either case, the person is metaphorically turning a blind eye.

To turn a blind eye means “to refuse to see; be oblivious.” It’s essentially pretending like you have no clue what’s happening, even when the issue is overt. The expression is based on the premise that if you’re blind and can’t see, you can feign ignorance and act unaware of what’s going on. Some people credit the saying to a popular figure from British military history, and while he may have played a role in popularizing it, he didn’t coin it.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence of “blind eye” appears in a 1698 collection of religious essays by author John Norris: “To turn the deaf Ear, and the blind Eye to all those Pomps and Vanities of the World which we renounc’d at our Baptism.” The phrase “to turn a deaf ear” specifically means “to refuse to listen.”

Many of the earliest examples paired “blind eye” with “deaf ear”; it wasn’t until the 19th century that “blind eye” was largely used on its own. 

That brings us to British naval commander Horatio Nelson, to whom many credit this saying, for very literal reasons. While he didn’t coin the phrase, his purported actions helped popularize it. During the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, Nelson — who claimed to be blind in one eye — wanted to press on, so he acted as if he couldn’t see a signal telling his troops to disengage. An 1809 biography claimed he said, “I have only one eye — and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal.” 

However, the plot thickens from there: Nelson had indeed lost an arm and sustained injuries to an eye in an earlier battle, but he apparently regained complete use of that eye. Claiming a blind eye was likely just an excuse to ignore his commanding officer’s orders. In any case, he did go on to win the Battle of Copenhagen, and the anecdote helped to further popularize the phrase “turning a blind eye.”