Definitions

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

  • adjective Having keen vision.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Keen-eyed; very sharp-sighted; given to watching or peering into small matters.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having piercing eyes, sharp-sighted.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • His Hoover is more to be censured than pitied, an obsessive-compulsive creep with the vocal rhythms of a ball-peen hammer and a gimlet-eyed gift for blackmail.

    'J. Edgar': Hoover's Life, in a Dramatic Vacuum Joe Morgenstern 2011

  • It isn't about numbers, be they player stats or the staggering sums spent by top-tier franchises, even though the story seems at first to be asking us to root for the gimlet-eyed statistician, rather than the sharp-eyed pitcher or batter; for data, rather than intuition; for the cool satisfactions of science, rather than the fevered romance of sport.

    'Moneyball': Stars, Stats and Perfect Pitch Joe Morgenstern 2011

  • As two very different ingénues battle it out for the lead, a brassy veteran chorine (Megan Hilty, a true Broadway veteran) and a newbie from Iowa with heart (American Idol's Katharine McPhee), Smash at times evokes Bob Fosse's classic All That Jazz in its gimlet-eyed, gamy yet irrepressibly fabulous and tuneful valentine to the business of show biz.

    Monday TV in Review: Smash's Opening Night, Plus House, Castle, and More 2012

  • This gimlet-eyed memoir is Joan Didion's meticulous chronicle of the harrowing year following the death of her husband of 40 years, the writer John Gregory Dunne, who died of a heart attack at their dinner table.

    Deathless Accounts Of Mourning Adam Haslett 2011

  • But his integrity, to say nothing of his sanity, is under constant challenge from the competing demands of an exuberant multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is secretly planning a move to a restaurant of his own.

    In the Kitchen: Summary and book reviews of In the Kitchen by Monica Ali. 2009

  • They are very conservative, and as we all know, they have a gimlet-eyed view of government.

    Will Marshall: The Tea Party Is the GOP's Problem Will Marshall 2010

  • The gimlet-eyed joke is that Madeleine has become enamored of a book that is designed to undermine that feeling.

    Sense & Semiotics Sam Sacks 2011

  • But for all her gimlet-eyed calculation, Perry packs more wit and charisma into her eyelash extensions than most pop stars manage in a career.

    Justin Bieber; Katy Perry – review 2011

  • They are very conservative, and as we all know, they have a gimlet-eyed view of government.

    Will Marshall: The Tea Party Is the GOP's Problem Will Marshall 2010

  • On this basis alone, men fear a woman tottering towards them at the beginning of an evening, already gimlet-eyed with toe pain, and sitting down to eat with old-lady sigh.

    The Saturday interview: Caitlin Moran 2011

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  • "I, as a speaker and writer of English, am descriptivist. I look at what it is doing at the moment, puzzling it out, making my own choices. Prescriptivism comes in when as a gimlet-eyed editor or teacher I advise which available product is best suited to the customer. I do not lay down the law, for there is no law."

    – John E. McIntyre, "Free-market English", "You Don't Say" blog, Baltimore Sun, 16 Oct. 2015

    October 17, 2015