bury
verb (used with object)
to put in the ground and cover with earth.
bury
American
[ber-ee]
/ ˈbɛr i /
verb (used with object)
-
buries,
present (3rd person singular)
-
buried,
past participle, past
-
burying
present participle
-
to put in the ground and cover with earth.
The pirates buried the chest on the island.
-
to put (a corpse) in the ground or a vault, or into the sea, often with ceremony.
They buried the sailor with full military honors.
-
to plunge in deeply; cause to sink in.
to bury an arrow in a target.
-
to cover in order to conceal from sight.
She buried the card in the deck.
- Antonyms:
- uncover
-
to immerse (oneself).
He buried himself in his work.
-
to put out of one's mind.
to bury an insult.
-
to consign to obscurity; cause to appear insignificant by assigning to an unimportant location, position, etc..
Her name was buried in small print at the end of the book.
noun
-
buries
plural
idioms
-
bury the hatchet, to become reconciled or reunited.
-
bury one's head in the sand, to avoid reality; ignore the facts of a situation.
You cannot continue to bury your head in the sand—you must learn to face facts.
bury
1
British
/ ˈbɛrɪ /
verb
-
to place (a corpse) in a grave, usually with funeral rites; inter
-
to place in the earth and cover with soil
-
to lose through death
-
to cover from sight; hide
-
to embed; sink
to bury a nail in plaster
-
to occupy (oneself) with deep concentration; engross
to be buried in a book
-
to dismiss from the mind; abandon
to bury old hatreds
-
to cease hostilities and become reconciled
-
to refuse to face a problem
Bury
2
British
/ ˈbɛrɪ /
noun
-
a town in NW England, in Bury unitary authority, Greater Manchester: an early textile centre. Pop: 60 178 (2001)
-
a unitary authority in NW England, in Greater Manchester. Pop: 181 900 (2003 est). Area: 99 sq km (38 sq miles)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
burysimple
-
buriessimple
-
have buriedperfect
-
has buriedperfect
-
am buryingprogressive
-
are buryingprogressive
-
is buryingprogressive
-
have been buryingperfect progressive
-
has been buryingperfect progressive
Past
-
buriedsimple
-
had buriedperfect
-
was buryingprogressive
-
were buryingprogressive
-
had been buryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bury
First recorded before 1000; Middle English berien, buryen, Old English byrgan “to bury, conceal”; akin to Old English beorgan “to hide, protect, preserve”; cognate with Dutch, German bergen, Gothic bairgan, Old Norse bjarga
Explanation
When you dig a hole in the ground, put an object in the hole, and cover it up with dirt, you bury it. Your dog might prefer spending the majority of his time digging holes to bury his toy collection. You can bury something to hide it, or it can be part of a funeral ritual to bury a person who's died. You could also predict that the coming snow will bury the city, or you might bury your face in your hands if you were feeling dejected. The root of bury is the Proto-Indo-European word bhergh, "to protect or preserve." If you bury your money in the yard, maybe you're trying to protect it from thieves.
Vocabulary lists containing bury
"Eleven"
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List 5
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"Mysteries of the Ancient Past"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Acme has spent the past several years in cinematic purgatory after its original studio tried to bury it for a tax write-off.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
I don’t want to bury that under caveats.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
"We're waiting to recover the body so we can bury her," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
After seeing JPMorgan leaders repeatedly attempt to bury the issues she raised, Lillie sought whistleblower protections and disclosed her concerns to the Justice Department, U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
“Of course it was Leroy’s snake! Everybody knows it was Leroy’s snake. Why else would he bury it? Why would Leroy Herdman bury someone else’s snake?”
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
There was little warning that an eye‑catching scoreline was coming, given John Lyall's Division One leaders had only edged the first‑leg tie 2-1 at Fourth Division Bury.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Matthew Torbitt worked for Bury South MP Christian Wakeford when, between August 2022 and September 2024, he claimed rail tickets that were "not for Parliamentary purposes", Thames Magistrates' Court heard.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
A genetic study of 132 people buried in a large megalithic tomb near Bury, about 50 kilometers north of Paris, has uncovered evidence of a dramatic population collapse and replacement during the Stone Age.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
Jamie Yetter was staying at the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort and Spa with her fiancé, Chris Bury, and her teenage daughter when they witnessed the attack Friday night, she told NBC Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
Bury the feet that I’m standing at my mother’s grave after she left me in the world to fend for myself.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
At every turn, Schoenbrun buries the movie alive, heaping layer upon layer of meta subtext onto it.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
The road ahead is still uncertain as Iran buries the last of the first-generation founders of its 1979 revolution.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Dozens of crumbling buildings in Venezuela's decimated earthquake zone bear a spray-painted letter 'D' -- a sign that buries any hope of finding life beneath the rubble.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Mr. Yasunaga, however, forms his creations out of glaze and other ornaments, then buries the objects in sand or unrefined clay to fire them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Camille covers her mouth to avoid laughing while Emma buries her face in my hair.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
In Newport Beach, strong waves have carved away so many layers of sand that they exposed long-forgotten remnants of the city’s infrastructure that lay buried under sand and water for many decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Thousands of people displaced by Wednesday's flash floods are living in temporary relief camps, their homes either washed away by rivers or buried under silt and mud.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
The death toll from last week’s massive floods in Nepal and China surpassed 900, as army and police teams raced to reach hundreds of hydropower workers trapped inside mountain tunnels buried in mud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The floods - which decimated parts of Nepal on Wednesday and have left at least 2,426 people missing - saw the school building buried under mud and debris.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Then he buried it and waited for the next bone.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
Nepal was burying on Monday some of the hundreds of bodies retrieved after a deadly, tsunami-like flood crashed through the Himalayan region, sweeping away villages and leaving thousands still missing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
"In the Wasatch, the mountains themselves are eroding and burying the snow, and that's why the rock glaciers exist," Anderson noted.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
Someone else threw out the idea of burying the ring for Danielle to find.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
Meanwhile Venezuelans have begun burying the dead who have been found so far.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
In some ticket booths the volume grew so great, so quickly, that silver coins began piling on the floors and burying the ticket-takers’ shoes.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
