Word.ws English Dictionary

ostrich instruction

ostrich instruction noun: an instruction to jurors telling them they may equate wilful ignorance with actual knowledge.

Noun

ostrich instruction (plural ostrich instructions)

  1. An instruction to jurors telling them they may equate wilful ignorance with actual knowledge.
    • Based on this evidence, we concluded an ostrich instruction was appropriate because a jury could reasonably conclude that he had deliberately avoided the truth.1999, U.S. v. Craig, 178 F.3d 891 (7th Cir. 1999)

Forms of ostrich instruction

pluralostrich instructions

Origin of ostrich instruction

After the supposed habit of the ostrich of burying its head in the sand to avoid danger by not seeing it.

Questions about ostrich instruction

What does ostrich instruction mean?
Ostrich instruction means an instruction to jurors telling them they may equate wilful ignorance with actual knowledge.
What part of speech is ostrich instruction?
Ostrich instruction is a noun.
What is the plural of ostrich instruction?
The plural of ostrich instruction is ostrich instructions.

Words near ostrich instruction in the dictionary

  1. Ostrich Alliance
  2. ostrich dinosaur
  3. ostrich dinosaurs
  4. ostrich fern
  5. ostrich ferns
  6. ostrich instruction
  7. ostrich instructions
  8. ostrich policies
  9. ostrich policy
  10. ostrich politics
  11. ostrich-like

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ostrich instruction (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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