eye

See also: Eye and ẹyẹ

English

Picture dictionary

eye

skull

brain

eye

lip

nose

mouth

chin

jaw

ear

temple

neck

Click on labels in the image.

A human eye, showing iris and pupil behind the transparent cornea

Compound eye of a species of fly, showing size gradation of ommatidia from top down. The ocelli are just visible at the top between the compound eyes

Eye of a sewing needle with thread passing through

The eye of a tropical cyclonic storm shows here as a dark spot in the middle of the white vortex of cloud as seen from a satellite

Pronunciation

enPR: ī, IPA^(key): /aɪ/
Audio (US) (file)
Rhymes: -aɪ
Homophones: ay, aye, I

Etymology 1

From Middle English eye, eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe, from Old English ēage (“eye”), from Proto-West Germanic *augā, from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Danish øje, Norwegian Bokmål øye, Norwegian Nynorsk auga, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”).

Other Indo-European cognates include Latin oculus (whence English oculus), Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps, “(poetic) eye; face”) and ὄσσε (ósse, “eyes”), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan 𐬀𐬱𐬌‎ (aši, “eyes”), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi). Related to ogle.

The uncommon plural form eyen is from Middle English eyen, from Old English ēagan, nominative and accusative plural of ēage (“eye”).

Noun

eye (plural eyes or (obsolete or dialectal) eyen or (obsolete) eyne)

An organ through which animals see (perceive surroundings via light).
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:eye
Hyponym: ocellus
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, OCLC 1041029189, [Act III, scene ii]:
  To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
- 1605, The Trial of Chivalry:
  Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]
- 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, OCLC 1000449192, page 361:
  Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
  She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XVII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 483591931:
  The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […] .
- 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist‎:
  The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.
Bright lights really hurt my eyes.
The visual sense.
The car was quite pleasing to the eye, but impractical.
The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
Brown, blue, green, hazel eyes.
Natalie’s brown eyes looked into Jim’s blue eyes, and the girl and boy flirted.
Attention, notice.
That dress caught her eye.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
  In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.
The ability to notice what others might miss.
Synonym: perceptiveness
He has an eye for talent.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
  Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
A meaningful stare or look.
She was giving him the eye at the bar.
When the car cut her off, she gave him the eye.
A private eye: a privately hired detective or investigator.
- 2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Random House, →ISBN, page 199:
  Far more annoying were the letters from parents of missing daughters and the private detectives who had begun showing up at his door. Independently of each other, the Cigrand and Conner families had hired “eyes” to search for their missing daughters.
A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
- 1856 October 18, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, N.S.W., page 6, column 1:
  [H]e struck the Duffer a sharp blow on the back of the head with the eye of the axe, and left him stunned and senseless on the earth[.]
A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
Synonym: eyelet
The relatively clear and calm center of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
A mark on an animal, such as a peacock or butterfly, resembling a human eye.
The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
A reproductive bud in a potato.
(informal) The dark brown center of a black-eyed Susan flower.
A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a rope, hook, pin, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
That which resembles the eye in relative importance or beauty.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene vii]:
  the very eye of that proverb
- 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398:
  Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
Tinge; shade of colour.
- 1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours
  Red with an eye of blue makes a purple.
One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
(architecture) The circle in the centre of a volute.
(typography) The enclosed counter (negative space) of the small letter e.
(game of Go) An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
(usually in the plural) View or opinion.
This victory will make us great in the eyes of the world.

Derived terms

after-eye
all eyes
all my eye
all my eye and Betty Martin
all-seeing eye
an eye for an eye
an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
angel eye
apple of someone's eye
apple of the eye
as far as the eye can see
as far as the eye could see
a sheet in the wind's eye
bad eye
bat an eye
bat of an eye
beady eye
beauty is in the eye of the beholder
believe one's eyes
better than a poke in the eye
better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick
better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick
big eye
bird's-eye
bird's eye chili
bird's-eye maple
bird's-eye view
blackeye, black eye
blear eye
blink of an eye
blood in one's eye
blue-eye
blue eye cod
brown eye
bull's eye
bull's-eye, bullseye
bung eye
by the eye
calyx eye
camel through the eye of a needle
catch someone's eye
catch the eye
cat-eye
cat's eye
cat's-eye
chi-by-eye
close one eye
cock eye
cock-eye
collie eye anomaly
compound eye
corner of the eye
crab's eye
cross-eye
damn my eyes
deadeye
dead-eye
dead-eye Dick
diddley-eye
doll's eye
dry eye
dry eye syndrome
eagle eye
easy on the eye
eff why eye
electric eye
Elliott eye
enough to put in one's eye
entry point for the eye
every shut eye isn't asleep
evil eye
evil-eye
eye agate
eye animalcule
eye-apple
eye bags
eyeball
eye-ball
eye bank
eyebath
eye black
eye bleach
eye bolt
eye booger
eyebrow
eye brow
eyebrow pencil
eye candy
eye-catcher, eyecatcher
eye-catching
eye-catchingly
eye chart
eye-clean
eye color
eye colour
eye contact
-eyed
eye dialect
eye doctor
eye drop
eye-drop
eye-drops
eye examination
eye fillet
eye-filling
eye fly
eye for an eye
eye for eye
eye-fuck
eye fuck
eyeful
eyeglass
eye-glassed
eye-gougingly
eye gunk
eye-hand coordination
eye hoe
eye in the sky
eye lash
eyelash
eye-lash
eyeless
eyelet
eye level
eyelid
eyeliner
eye-lock
eye lock
eyely
eye M.D.
eye MD
eye-minded
eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
eye music
eye of a needle
eye of day
eye of round
eye of the beholder
eye of the storm
eye-opener
eye opener
eye-opening
eye patch
eye pattern
eye pencil
eye-piece
eyepiece
eye-pit
eye plate
eye-popper
eye-popping
eye-poppingly
eye-rape
eye rhyme
eye roll
eye-roll
eye-rolling
eyes down
eye-searing
eye-servant
eye-service
eye-sex
eye sex
eye-shade
eye shadow, eyeshadow
eyesight
eye sight
eyes in the boat
eye-socket
eye socket
eyes on the prize
eyesore
eye splice
eyestrain
eye-strain
eye-string
eyestripe
eye-stripe
eye-sweet
eye test
eye to eye
eye-to-eye
eye tooth
eye-tooth
eye up
eyewall
eye wash
eye-watering
eye-wateringly
eye-winker
eye-witness
eyewitness
eye witness
eye-word
eye-worthy
feast one's eyes
fish-eye, fish eye
fish-eye lens
Flemish eye
for your eyes only
four-eye principle
fox eye
frog-eye salad
frog's-eye view
gardener's eye
get one's eye in
give an eye-tooth
give one's eye-teeth
give someone the eye
give the eye
glad-eye
glass blue-eye
glass eye
glint in the milkman's eye
God's eye
goggle-eye
googly eye
goo-goo eyes
gooseberry eye
green in one's eye
half an eye
half-eye
hand-eye
hand-eye coordination
have an eye for
have eyes for
have one's eye on
have one's eye out
hawk-eye
here's mud in your eye
hook and eye
in a pig's eye
in the blink of an eye
in the eye of the wind
in the twinkling of an eye
in the wind's eye
in the wink of an eye
I spy with my little eye
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye
Jap's eye
keep an eye on
keep an eye open
keep an eye out
keep an eye peeled
keep an eye skinned
keep a weather eye open
keep one's eye in
keep one's eye on the ball
keep one's eyes peeled
Kelly's eye
laser eye surgery
lay one's eyes on
lazy eye
light of one's eye
magic eye
make eyes at
master eye
mind's eye
mind your eye
moon eye
more than meets the eye
mud-eye
muscle-eye-brain disease
my eye
naked eye
naked-eye
night eye
one in the eye for
out of the corner of one's eye
oxeye
ox-eye
ox-eye daisy
pale-faced bare-eye
pearl eye
phantom eye syndrome
pheasant's eye
pig's eye
pink-eye
pipe one's eye
pipe the eye
pit-eye
plat-eye
poke someone's eye out
pope's eye
pop-eye
private eye
public eye
puppy dog eyes
put the miller's eye out
rapid eye movement
Red Eye
red eye
red-eye, redeye
rib-eye
rib eye
rib eye steak
rib-eye steak
roaming eye
roving eye
see eye to eye
seeing-eye
seeing eye ball
seeing-eye dog
seeing eye dog
see with half an eye
selenium eye
sheep's eye
shit eye
shut-eye, shuteye
side-eye
side eye
sight for sore eyes
sleep with one eye open
spacecraft's-eye
stank eye
stick a needle in my eye
stink-eye
stink eye
swivel eye
take one's eye off the ball
take the red eye
third eye
throw an eye
tiger's eye
turn a blind eye
twinkle in one's daddy's eye
twinkle in one's father's eye
wattle-eye
weather eye
white-eye
wipe someone's eye
with an eye to
with an eye towards
without batting an eye
without blinking an eye
worm's eye view
worm's-eye view
worth a Jew's eye

Descendants

Sranan Tongo: ai

Translations

See eye/translations § Noun.

References

Eye (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

eye (third-person singular simple present eyes, present participle eyeing or eying, simple past and past participle eyed)

(transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
After eyeing the document for half an hour, she decided not to sign it.
They went out and eyed the new car one last time before deciding.
- 1859, Fraser's Magazine (volume 60, page 671)
  Each downcast monk in silence takes / His place a newmade grave around, / Each one his brother sadly eying.
Synonym: gaze (poetic)
(intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:
  My becomings kill me, when they do not eye well to you.
(transitive) To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
- 1996, Food Preparation and Cooking (page 418)
  Once the potatoes have been rumbled they require 'eyeing' with a turning knife or hand peeler.
- 2012, Bob Vargovcik, Bayonne Boy (page 19)
  My first assignment was eyeing old potatoes. The Siegler brothers would buy potatoes so old they looked like an octopus. My job was to make them look presentable and, of course, sellable.
(transitive) To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.
- 1927, Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Forty-Seventh Session of the Legislature of the State of California
  Eggs were collected from the Taylor Creek, Upper Truckee River, and Blackwood Creek traps and transported to this station to be eyed […]

Derived terms

eye up
ineye

Translations

to observe carefully or appraisingly

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܥܲܝܸܢ‎ (ʿayin)
Bulgarian: наблюдавам (bg) (nabljudavam)
Dutch: bekijken (nl), observeren (nl), gluren (nl)
Fijian: yaloka (fj)
Finnish: tarkastella (fi)
French: convoiter (fr), guigner (fr), lorgner (fr)
German: beäugen (de)
Hungarian: megnéz (hu), szemügyre vesz (hu), megfigyel (hu), figyel (hu)
Italian: adocchiare (it), visionare (it)
Malayalam: നോക്കുക (ml) (nōkkuka)
Maori: karu
Persian: دیدبانی دادن‎ (didebāni dādan)
Polish: przypatrywać się (pl)
Portuguese: observar (pt), examinar (pt)
Russian: смотре́ть (ru) (smotrétʹ), рассма́тривать (ru) (rassmátrivatʹ)
Swedish: betrakta (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Arabic: ^{(please verify)} حَدَّجَ‎ (ḥaddaja)
French: ^{(please verify)} examiner (fr)
Italian: ^{(please verify)} occhio (it) m
Romanian: ^{(please verify)} ochi (ro)
Swedish: ^{(please verify)} ögna (sv)
Turkish: ^{(please verify)} göze girmek (tr)

Noun

eye (plural eyes)

The name of the Latin-script letter I.
- 2004 Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, p. 170
  It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."
- 2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), p. 3-5
  IED [is spoken] as "eye-ee-dee" instead of "I SPELL India Echo Delta Romeo".

Alternative forms

i

Etymology 3

Probably from rebracketing of a nye as an eye.

Noun

eye (plural eyes)

A brood.
an eye of pheasants

Anagrams

Yee, yee

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English eġe, from Proto-West Germanic *agi, from Proto-Germanic *agaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égʰos. Doublet of awe.

Alternative forms

eie, eȝe, eȝȝe, eyȝe, eiȝe

Pronunciation

(Early ME) IPA^(key): /ˈejə/
IPA^(key): /ˈɛi̯(ə)/
Rhymes: -ɛi̯(ə)

Noun

eye (uncountable)

awe, reverence, worshipfulness
horror, panic
that which creates reverence; the exercise of power
that which incites awe
that which incites terror

Related terms

eifulle (rare)
eiliche (rare)

Descendants

English: ey (obsolete)

References

“eie, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-11.

Noun

eye

Alternative form of eie

Noun

eye

Alternative form of ey (“egg”)

Nupe

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /e.jé/

Noun

eyé

eye
face; surface

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /e.jè/

Noun

eyè

nose

Tatar

Adverb

eye

very, of course, emphatic adverb

Tetelcingo Nahuatl

Interjection

eye

hey!

References

Brewer, Forrest; Brewer, Jean G. (1962) Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo, Morelos: Castellano-mexicano, mexicano-castellano (Serie de vocabularios indígenas Mariano Silva y Aceves; 8)‎ (in Spanish), México, D.F.: El Instituto Lingüístico de Verano en coordinación con la Secretaría de Educación Pública a través de la Dirección General de Internados de Enseñanza Primaria y Educación Indígena, published 1971, page 126

Tocharian B

Etymology

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éy-ós, nominalized form of *h₁ey- (“to go”), where the semantics developed along the lines of the animals being herded. For similar etymological and semantic developments, compare Hittite iyant (“sheep”) and Oscan eítuvam (“wealth”) (originally meaning livestock, for which semantically compare Latin pecunia).

Noun

eye ?

sheep, goat

Umbundu

Pronoun

eye

(third-person singular pronoun)

Yoruba

Alternative forms

yèyé

Etymology 1

Possibly related to etymology 2, but this is used in slightly more formal settings.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /è.jé/

Noun

èye

(Ekiti) mother, mom
Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀
a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative, or a priestess
Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé

Derived terms

èyé àbá (“paternal grandmother”)
Èyé Káre (“nickname for Ọ̀ṣun”)

Etymology 2

Perhaps related to Edo iye and Yorùbá iye

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /è.jē/

Noun

èyé

(Ekiti) mother, mom
Synonyms: ìyá, ùyá, màmá, mọ́mì, abiyamọ, iye, ìmọ̀mọ́, màámi, ìmọ́ọ̀
a term of familiarity or respect for an older woman, or older female relative
Synonyms: ìyá, màmá, yèyé

Derived terms

èyeèye (“grandmother, maternal grandmother”)

eye

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

References

Verb

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

Alternative forms

Etymology 3

Noun

Anagrams

Middle English

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

Related terms

Descendants

References

Noun

Noun

Nupe

Pronunciation

Noun

Pronunciation

Noun

Tatar

Adverb

Tetelcingo Nahuatl

Interjection

References

Tocharian B

Etymology

Noun

Further reading

Umbundu

Pronoun

See also

Yoruba

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms