Definitions

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

  • adjective Eliciting wonder or astonishment.

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

  • adjective Visually astonishing, stunning, incredible.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective amazingly impressive; suggestive of the flashing of lightning

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The image is of a viewer's eyes opening wide to the point of popping out.

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Examples

  • In the United States, well-endowed pinup girls, including Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, donned eye-popping bikinis for photo shoots.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • The Holy Ghost teaches us, he says, and “when you are praying in tongues you are speaking about this ‘eye-popping destiny’ that He has for you.”

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

  • In the United States, well-endowed pinup girls, including Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe, donned eye-popping bikinis for photo shoots.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

  • “From 1985 to 2006, EITC payments grew from $2.1 billion to $44.4 billion, or by an eye-popping 2,014 percent,” Rubenstein said.

    Wonk Room » GOP Congressmen Mislead Again: ‘Millions’ Of ‘Criminal Illegal Aliens’ Will Receive Health Care 2009

  • Whatever eye-popping gimmickry succeeded with the theatrical release, it was lost on me in my living room.

    Archive 2010-03-01 2010

  • The accompanying statistics boasted that it achieves the equivalent of 93 miles per gallon, which is pretty eye-popping.

    Why Are General Motors Shares Stuck in Reverse? James B. Stewart 2011

  • Mr. Doonan admitted he was "bewildered" that he hadn't been contacted as we sat in the elegantly eye-popping Greenwich Village apartment he shares with his partner, home-furnishing designer and potter Jonathan Adler , and their Norwich terrier Liberace.

    A Royal Pronouncement Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

  • They wear eye-popping orange windbreakers and orange-and-white-striped uniforms, better to locate them should they get lost on the way back to their housing units.

    One Bright Side of Rikers Island Ralph Gardner Jr. 2011

  • But look at the eye-popping variation in yields among funds that focus on Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS, the U.S. obligations that rise in value as the consumer-price index goes up.

    How Inflation-Protected Funds Get to Inflate Their Yields Jason Zweig 2011

  • Whatever eye-popping gimmickry succeeded with the theatrical release, it was lost on me in my living room.

    Rabid Rewind (Book vs. Movie): Coraline 2010

Comments

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  • "Spending eye-popping sums of money, deploying armies of lobbyists, dispatching grassroots foot soldiers as agents of disruption, the special interests have fought fiercely to derail the White House reform agenda."

    - Andy Kroll, Obama vs. the Lobbyists, tomdispatch.com, 15 Sep 2009.

    September 16, 2009