cat's eye

cat's eye

See also: catseye and cat's-eye

English

Alternative forms

• cat's-eye
• catseye

Etymology

In mineralogy, a calque of French œil de chat.

Noun

Cat's eyes (road markings)

Cat's eyes (marbles)

cat's eye (countable and uncountable, plural cats' eyes)

1. (countable, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, usually in the plural) A retroreflective device placed on a road surface as a marking that can be seen even at night.
2. (countable) A glass marble with elongated colourful inclusions running through its axis.

   Synonym: cat-eye

3. A gemstone exhibiting chatoyancy.
4. (mineralogy) Cymophane (translucent yellow chatoyant chrysoberyl).
5. (countable, New Zealand) Lunella smaragda
6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cat,‎ eye.; the eye of a cat.

Translations

retroreflective device placed on a road surface

Bulgarian: котешко око n (koteško oko) Chinese: Mandarin: 貓眼 (zh) (māoyǎn) Dutch: kattenoog (nl) Finnish: tienpintaheijastin French: œil de chat (fr) m Galician: ollo de gato m German: Katzenauge (de) f Irish: súile cait Italian: catadiottro m, catarifrangente (it) m Japanese: チャッターバー (chattā bā) Malay: pemantul cahaya Portuguese: olho de gato m, tachão (pt) m, tartaruga (pt) f Russian: катафо́т (ru) m (katafót) Swedish: kattöga (sv) n Thai: ตาแมว (dtaa-mɛɛo)

glass marble with elongated inclusions

Chinese: Mandarin: 貓眼 (zh) (māoyǎn) Finnish: lasikuula Russian: коша́чий глаз (ru) m (košáčij glaz)

cymophane — see cymophane

Anagrams

• cat-eyes