bird's-eye

bird's-eye

See also: birdseye

English

Alternative forms

• bird's eye, birds eye, birds-eye, birdseye

Adjective

bird's-eye (not comparable)

1. Having spots resembling the eyes of a bird.
2. As if viewed from an altitude; panoramic.
   • 2016 May 5, Roderick Conway Morris, “In Venice, the Power of the Press on Display”, in The New York Times‎:

     There is also one of the woodblocks used to print Jacopo de’ Barbari’s revolutionary bird’s-eye panorama of Venice and the lagoon, from 1500.

   • 2021 December 26, Mary Rourke, “Wayne Thiebaud, prolific California painter and teacher, dies at 101”, in Los Angeles Times‎:

     In the 1970s Thiebaud became increasingly interested in landscapes and cityscapes that he painted from a bird’s-eye perspective. In “Potrero Hill” a painting from the mid-1970s, he jammed freeways, hills and buildings together in a steep vertical of color and light.

Derived terms

• (spots): bird's-eye maple, bird's-eye rot, bird's-eye spot
• (panoramic): bird's-eye view

Noun

bird's-eye (countable and uncountable, plural bird's-eyes)

1. A fabric having a pattern of small circles or diamonds with a spot in each centre.
2. A kind of tobacco.
3. A figure found in wood, especially hard maple, resembling tiny swirling eyes disrupting the smooth grain.

Anagrams

• birdeyes