bury

[ber-ee]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bury ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), bur·ied, bur·y·ing.

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.

noun, plural bur·ies.

Nautical. housing¹(def 8a, b).

Idioms

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

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

Related formshalf-bur·ied, adjectivere·bur·y, verb (used with object), re·bur·ied, re·bur·y·ing.un·bur·ied, adjectivewell-bur·ied, adjective

Can be confusedBarry berry bury

Synonyms for bury

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bury ON THESAURUS.COM

2. inter, entomb, inhume. 4. hide, secrete.

Antonyms for bury

2. disinter, exhume. 4. uncover.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for bury

plant, entomb, deposit, hide, stash, embed, sink, submerge, enshrine, embalm, inter, inhume, mummify, occult, screen, cache, enshroud, shroud, ensconce, secrete

Examples from the Web for bury

Contemporary Examples of bury

Then they intended to bury her, but she looked more alive than dead, and she still had such pretty red cheeks.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her
The Brothers Grimm
November 30, 2014
Us is me and Gus, driving our bus across the land; when we die, just bury us together, hand in hand.
Well, La Ti Da: Stephin Merritt’s Winning Little Words of Scrabble
David Bukszpan
October 11, 2014
The landscape looks something like the marsh behind the Toys ‘R’ Us where Tony Soprano might bury a body in Jersey.
Our Trip to The Climate War's Ground Zero
Darren Aronofsky
September 19, 2014
Just days before, the officer told him, 19 bodies of Ebola victims were left lying outside with few men to bury them.
CDC: 'Window Is Closing' on Containing Ebola
Abby Haglage
September 2, 2014
The scene of them taking that young kid to Najaf to bury him is still in my mind.
My Non-First World Problems: Letters from Iraq
Andrew Slater
August 10, 2014

Historical Examples of bury

Also you will bury a bottle containing report of your proceedings.
Explorations in Australia
John Forrest
Shot a damn cock pheasant by mistake, and had to bury the thing in my own covers.
Viviette
William J. Locke
The dead or who would might bury the dead; he must go to the living!
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
He'd hide me somewhere outside the city, he'd bury alive the most lovely of women.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
Or s'pose he had it in mind to fill in that low land, so 't we could bury there!
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown

British Dictionary definitions for bury

bury

verb buries, burying or buried (tr)

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 for bury

Old English byrgan to bury, hide; related to Old Norse bjarga to save, preserve, Old English beorgan to defend

Bury

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)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bury

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.