Meaning
To refuse to acknowledge an unpleasant or dangerous reality, choosing willful ignorance over confronting a problem.
The phrase almost always carries a critical edge: it describes avoidance that is likely to make things worse, not a neutral or harmless coping choice.
Origin
The image comes from a myth about ostriches that has circulated in Europe since antiquity. Pliny the Elder recorded it in his “Naturalis Historia” (77 AD), describing ostriches as foolish enough to believe their whole body was hidden once their head was buried — though the earlier historian Diodorus Siculus had actually offered a more sympathetic reading, framing the same behavior as the bird protecting its most vulnerable part. The English idiom itself is first attested in 1623, in a pamphlet describing “the Austridge, who hiding her little head, supposeth her great body obscured.” In reality, ostriches never bury their heads at all; they lower them to the ground only to turn eggs in a nest or to peck at sand and pebbles that aid digestion, and Pliny’s error has simply outlived the truth.
Examples
The company kept burying its head in the sand about declining sales until it was too late to fix anything.
You can’t just bury your head in the sand and hope the debt disappears on its own.
Politicians who bury their heads in the sand on climate change only make the eventual reckoning worse.
A: “Have you told your doctor about the symptoms?” B: “No, honestly, I’ve just been burying my head in the sand.”
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Bury one's head in the sand' mean?
To refuse to acknowledge an unpleasant or dangerous reality, choosing willful ignorance over confronting a problem.
The phrase almost always carries a critical edge: it describes avoidance that is likely to make things worse, not a neutral or harmless coping choice.