bury
- 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.
- 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.
- Nautical. housing1(def 8a, b).
- 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 the hatchet, to become reconciled or reunited.
Origin of bury
Synonyms
See more synonyms for bury on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Examples from the Web for bury
Contemporary Examples
Then they intended to bury her, but she looked more alive than dead, and she still had such pretty red cheeks.
Us is me and Gus, driving our bus across the land; when we die, just bury us together, hand in hand.
The landscape looks something like the marsh behind the Toys ‘R’ Us where Tony Soprano might bury a body in Jersey.
Just days before, the officer told him, 19 bodies of Ebola victims were left lying outside with few men to bury them.
The scene of them taking that young kid to Najaf to bury him is still in my mind.
Historical Examples
Also you will bury a bottle containing report of your proceedings.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
Shot a damn cock pheasant by mistake, and had to bury the thing in my own covers.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
The dead or who would might bury the dead; he must go to the living!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
He'd hide me somewhere outside the city, he'd bury alive the most lovely of women.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
Or s'pose he had it in mind to fill in that low land, so 't we could bury there!
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
bury
- 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; sinkto bury a nail in plaster
- to occupy (oneself) with deep concentration; engrossto be buried in a book
- to dismiss from the mind; abandonto bury old hatreds
- bury the hatchet to cease hostilities and become reconciled
- bury one's head in the sand to refuse to face a problem
Word Origin
Bury
- 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)
Word Origin and History for bury
v.
Old English byrgan "to raise a mound, hide, bury, inter," akin to beorgan "to shelter," from Proto-Germanic *burzjan- "protection, shelter" (cf. Old Saxon bergan, Dutch bergen, Old Norse bjarga, Swedish berga, Old High German bergan "protect, shelter, conceal," German bergen, Gothic bairgan "to save, preserve"), from PIE root *bhergh- "protect, preserve" (cf. Old Church Slavonic brego "I preserve, guard"). Related: Buried; burying. Burying-ground "cemetery" attested from 1711.
The Old English -y- was a short "oo" sound, like modern French -u-. Under normal circumstances it transformed into Modern English -i- (e.g. bridge, kiss, listen, sister), but in bury and a few other words (e.g. merry, knell) it retained a Kentish change to "e" that took place in the late Old English period. In the West Midlands, meanwhile, the Old English -y- sound persisted, slightly modified over time, giving the standard modern pronunciation of blush, much, church.