bury

[ ber-ee ]
See synonyms for bury on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object),bur·ied, bur·y·ing.
  1. to put in the ground and cover with earth: The pirates buried the chest on the island.

  2. 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.

  1. to plunge in deeply; cause to sink in: to bury an arrow in a target.

  2. to cover in order to conceal from sight: She buried the card in the deck.

  3. to immerse (oneself): He buried himself in his work.

  4. to put out of one's mind: to bury an insult.

  5. 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.

Idioms about bury

  1. 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.

  2. bury the hatchet, to become reconciled or reunited.

Origin of bury

1
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

Other words for bury

Opposites for bury

Other words from bury

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

Words that may be confused with bury

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bury in a sentence

  • When Tim hesitates he loses his temper as a sensible man should lose it—he buries it, and his indomitable good humor wins.

  • If he lack a corpse, he stretches himself on the slab of black marble and buries the scalpel deep in his own heart.

    Charles Baudelaire, His Life | Thophile Gautier
  • Wherever it rolls, it levels all things in its way, or buries them in unavoidable destruction.

  • It needs the shifting soil in which, using its mandibles as a plough-share, it digs into the ground and buries itself.

    More Hunting Wasps | J. Henri Fabre
  • The dart then leaps out and buries itself in the skin of the animal which touched the thread.

    On the Seashore | R. Cadwallader Smith

British Dictionary definitions for bury (1 of 2)

bury

/ (ˈbɛrɪ) /


verbburies, burying or buried (tr)
  1. to place (a corpse) in a grave, usually with funeral rites; inter

  2. to place in the earth and cover with soil

  1. to lose through death

  2. to cover from sight; hide

  3. to embed; sink: to bury a nail in plaster

  4. to occupy (oneself) with deep concentration; engross: to be buried in a book

  5. to dismiss from the mind; abandon: to bury old hatreds

  6. bury the hatchet to cease hostilities and become reconciled

  7. bury one's head in the sand to refuse to face a problem

Origin of bury

1
Old English byrgan to bury, hide; related to Old Norse bjarga to save, preserve, Old English beorgan to defend

British Dictionary definitions for Bury (2 of 2)

Bury

/ (ˈbɛrɪ) /


noun
  1. a town in NW England, in Bury unitary authority, Greater Manchester: an early textile centre. Pop: 60 178 (2001)

  2. 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