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:
Realizing in real-time that they had walked straight into a trap, the senator’s team tried to bury the evidence and move on before anyone noticed.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
"Win, lose or draw, let's bury the hatchet."
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
I also thought about how selfish I was being, but I knew that if it never happened, I would bury my dream and work hard at whatever job necessary to support my family.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Though her urn remains in the place she loved most, Landers hopes, someday, to bury her ashes in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to her youngest son.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Even a heavy dose of Tamika’s hot sauce wouldn’t be able to bury the bitter aftertaste.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
But that isn’t all that surprising at this early stage in an investigation, Bury said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
The moment Corrie walked into an area in central Bury St Edmunds known as the Horseshoe.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
A teenage boy, arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, was taken to Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre and has since been released on bail until 4 October.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 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
“We could give that. Or, you know what? We could give up the bicycle. Bury the money and . . . plant the seeds.”
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
At every turn, Schoenbrun buries the movie alive, heaping layer upon layer of meta subtext onto it.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 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
Tempering democratic rhetoric with aristocratic restraint, he rises above the divisions of debate to deliver the funeral oration when Athens buries its dead sons in the war’s first winter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Yet he buries his ledes so deep into the script that he leaves himself only a couple minutes to try to tie things up at the end.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2025
She turns to wrap her arms around his torso, and when she buries her face in his neck, his other arm slips around her waist.
From "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
Sosnoff is a bit more measured in his final assessment, quoting a participant as saying, “We haven’t buried the hatchet yet, but it’s been put away in the closet,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Le Ngoc Mai Uyen was a frequent visitor to the park named after her grandmother, revolutionary fighter Le Thi Rieng, before she realised her relative's body may be buried there.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
That meant more organic carbon could eventually become buried in seafloor sediments rather than being broken down.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
There’s almost certainly one or two buried in this piece alone.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026
Miss Keya asks when we take Teddy’s book over to the checkout desk with the library card I find buried in my wallet.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
Because the decomposition of organic matter can consume oxygen, burying more carbon helped favor the continued buildup of oxygen in the atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
“We’re challenging the buttoned-up paradigm of burying the dead. We’re keeping our dead alive through art, through talking about them always.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Why does tennis keep burying its best product?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
With mortuaries overflowing in Nepal, authorities have begun burying hundreds of unidentified bodies after DNA sampling.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
She pointed down the beach at Ess but then noticed the little girl had abandoned her letters, and was now seated and burying her feet in the sand.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
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