Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An organ of vision or of light sensitivity.
  • noun Either of a pair of hollow structures located in bony sockets of the skull, functioning together or independently, each having a lens capable of focusing incident light on an internal photosensitive retina from which nerve impulses are sent to the brain; the vertebrate organ of vision.
  • noun The external, visible portion of this organ together with its associated structures, especially the eyelids, eyelashes, and eyebrows.
  • noun The pigmented iris of this organ.
  • noun The faculty of seeing; vision.
  • noun The ability to make intellectual or aesthetic judgments.
  • noun A way of regarding something; a point of view.
  • noun Attention.
  • noun Watchful attention or supervision.
  • noun Something suggestive of the vertebrate organ of vision, especially.
  • noun An opening in a needle.
  • noun The aperture of a camera.
  • noun A loop, as of metal, rope, or thread.
  • noun A circular marking on a peacock's feather.
  • noun Chiefly Southern US The round flat cover over the hole on the top of a wood-burning stove.
  • noun A photosensitive device, such as a photoelectric cell.
  • noun A bud on a twig or tuber.
  • noun The often differently colored center of the corolla of some flowers.
  • noun Meteorology The circular area of relative calm at the center of a cyclone.
  • noun The center or focal point of attention or action.
  • noun Informal A detective, especially a private investigator.
  • noun A choice center cut of meat, as of beef.
  • transitive verb To look at.
  • transitive verb To watch closely.
  • transitive verb To supply with an eye.
  • idiom (all eyes) Fully attentive.
  • idiom (an eye for an eye) Punishment in which an offender suffers what the victim has suffered.
  • idiom (clap/lay) /set) To look at.
  • idiom (eye to eye) In agreement.
  • idiom (have eyes for) To be interested in.
  • idiom (have (one's) eye on) To look at, especially attentively or continuously.
  • idiom (have (one's) eye on) To have as one's objective.
  • idiom (in the eye of the wind) In a direction opposite that of the wind; close to the wind.
  • idiom (in the public eye) Frequently seen in public or in the media.
  • idiom (in the public eye) Widely publicized; well-known.
  • idiom (my eye) In no way; not at all. Used interjectionally.
  • idiom (with an eye to) With a view to.
  • idiom (with (one's) eyes closed) Unaware of the risks involved.
  • idiom (with (one's) eyes open) Aware of the risks involved.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fix the eye on; look at; view; observe; particularly, to observe or watch narrowly or with fixed attention.
  • To make an eye in: as, to eye a needle.
  • To be seen; appear; have an appearance.
  • noun A brood: as, an eye or a shoal of fish.
  • noun In some echinoids, a minute pigmented nodule, probably without visual functions, situated at the end of an ambulacrum.
  • noun In photography, the spectral range of wave-lengths to which a photographic plate or film is sensitive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English ēge, ēage; see okw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English ēaġe ("eye"), from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”) (compare Latin oculus, Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὤψ (ōps, "eye, face"), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan  (aši, "eyes"), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi), Tocharian A ak). Related to ogle.

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Examples

  • _Why beboldest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye_?

    Daily Strength for Daily Needs Mary W. Tileston

  • I looked round, and the baboon caught my eye, which told him plainly that he'd soon catch what was not at all _my eye_; and he proved that he actually thought so, for he at once put the bread-and-butter back into the boy's hands!

    Adventures in Many Lands Various

  • "If a man sell a horse which is lame, no action lyes for that, but _caveat emptor_; and when I sell a horse that has _no_ eye, there no action lies; otherwise where he has a counterfeit, false, and _bright eye_."

    Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850 Various

  • If 'and-éges' be accepted, the sentence will read: _No hero ... dared look upon her, eye to eye_.

    Beowulf An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem Lesslie [Translator] Hall

  • PARNELL (_ironically, after a pause of scrutiny eye to eye_).

    Angels & Ministers Laurence Housman 1912

  • The dog's eye therefore, without any consciousness on his own part, becomes in such a case _an evil eye_: upon me, at least, it fell with as painful an effect as any established eye of that class could do upon the most superstitious Portuguese.

    The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2 Thomas De Quincey 1822

  • This is another passage unnecessarily obscure: the meaning is, that when he _dazzles_, that is, has his eye made weak, _by fixing his eye upon a fairer eye, that_ fairer _eye shall be his heed_, his

    Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • The biblical adage of «an eye for eye» is a statute of limitation, not a spur to indiscriminate reprisal.

    Kathimerini English Edition : Print Edition : 26/6/09 2009

  • So also that other, _Why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye_? [

    The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales Jean Pierre Camus 1618

  • Retribution should not be a part of what we're talking about. "avengement, avenging, comeuppance, compensation, counterblow, eye for an eye*, just desserts,

    Attytood 2009

Comments

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  • well of water, Providence, watchfulness

    July 22, 2009

  • Hollywood slang for CBS.

    August 26, 2009