turn a deaf ear

T

turn a deaf ear

Meaning

• choose not to hear
• refuse to listen
• to ignore what someone says

Example Sentences

1. Please do not just turn a deaf ear to their cries for help.
2. It was too cheap when Sarah turned a deaf ear to our insistence.
3. The Bank tended to turn a deaf ear to ATM card lost complaints.
4. When I asked Michael to go with me for help – he just turned a deaf ear.
5. How can you turn a deaf ear to the crying victims of an accident?
6. The police turned a deaf ear to all the pleas made by the girl’s family.
7. The novelist has not turned a deaf ear to the criticisms.
8. The current administration has turned a deaf ear to the majority.
9. The customer had turned a deaf ear to the pending payments.
10. I cannot turn a deaf ear to my family problems.

Origin

The idiomatic expression dated from the first half of the 1400s and was in most proverb collections from 1546 on.

Ear, Ignore, Turn