Word.ws English Dictionary

close one eye

close one eye verb: to look the other way, to deliberately ignore or overlook (a mistake or transgression).

Verb

close one eye (third-person singular simple present closes one eye, present participle closing one eye, simple past and past participle closed one eye)

  1. (Malaysia, Singapore, idiomatic) to look the other way, to deliberately ignore or overlook (a mistake or transgression).
    • "It's also a distinctly Singaporean trait to carry on with whatever you can get away with," he added. "As long as the authorities close one eye."2019 November, Stella Ko, “Photographer subverts Singapore's 'sterile' reputation by capturing dream-like images of the city-state”, in CNN

Forms of close one eye

third-person singular presentcloses one eye
present participleclosing one eye
past participleclosed one eye
pastclosed one eye

Origin of close one eye

Compare close one's eyes.

Questions about close one eye

What does close one eye mean?
Close one eye means to look the other way, to deliberately ignore or overlook (a mistake or transgression).
What part of speech is close one eye?
Close one eye is a verb.
What is the past tense of close one eye?
The past tense of close one eye is closed one eye.

Words near close one eye in the dictionary

  1. close of business
  2. close of play
  3. close off
  4. close on the heels of
  5. close one
  6. close one eye
  7. close one's doors
  8. close one's ears
  9. close one's eyes
  10. close one's eyes and think of England
  11. close one's eyes for the last time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close one eye (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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