Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To affect (the eyes) with flowing tears or rheum so that the sight is dimmed and indistinct; make rheumy and dim: as, “blered her eyes,”
- To blur, as the face with weeping; obscure; obfuscate.
- To blear one's eyes, figuratively, to deceive; hoodwink; blind.
- To have bleared or inflamed eyes; be blear-eyed.
- Sore or dim from a watery discharge or other superficial affection: applied only to the eyes.
- Producing dimness of vision; blinding.
- Dim; indistinct; confused in outlines.
- n. Something that obscures the sight.
- To thrust (out); protrude: with out.
- To thrust out the tongue in mockery.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of eyes or vision: dim, unclear from water or rheum.
- v. To make blurred or dim, especially the eyes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Dim or sore with water or rheum; -- said of the eyes.
- adj. Causing or caused by dimness of sight; dim.
- v. To make somewhat sore or watery, as the eyes; to dim, or blur, as the sight. Figuratively: To obscure (mental or moral perception); to blind; to hoodwink.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make dim or indistinct
- adj. tired to the point of exhaustion
Etymologies
- Middle English bleren.
Examples
“The Emperor grew more weak-legged and blear-eyed what of the ingenious deviltries devised for him by”
“But my poor blear eyes like a bat's, startled me at my shadow on the flagstones.”
“They sat down together on the floor, and she patted Frona's hand lovingly, peering, meanwhile, blear-eyed and misty, into her face.”
“A blear-eyed ancient stood before him, balancing on a single crutch.”
“(London received $530 for this story on August 14, 1905.) "TO cook by your fire and to sleep under your roof for the night," I had announced on entering old Ebbits's cabin; and he had looked at me blear-eyed and vacuous, while Zilla had favored me with a sour face and a contemptuous grunt.”
“I had announced on entering old Ebbits's cabin; and he had looked at me blear-eyed and vacuous, while Zilla had favored me with a sour face and a contemptuous grunt.”
“The chief was alone with his blear-eyed wife, but a glance sufficed to tell Mackenzie that the news was already told.”
“Then How-ha's eyes went blear as she traversed the simple windings of her own brain, inspecting the bare shelves taciturnly stored with the impressions of a meagre life.”
“He remembered the days when some of the old men, still alive, had been born; and, unlike him, they were now decrepit, shaken with palsy, blear-eyed, toothless of mouth, deaf of ear, or paralysed.”
“In "The White Man's Way" (New York Tribune Sunday Magazine, November 4, 1906), Old Ebbits, "blear-eyed and vacuous," and his wife Zilla ( "no more bitter-tongued, implacable old squaw dwelt on the Yukon") are visited by a white man who shares his moose meat, tea and tobacco with them.”
“I ain't never goin' to work again. . . . I'm plum tired out.”
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