Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The small central circle on a target.
- noun A shot that hits this circle.
- noun A direct hit.
- noun The precise accomplishment of a goal or purpose.
- noun A thick, circular piece of glass set, as in a roof or ship's deck, to admit light.
- noun A circular opening or window.
- noun A plano-convex lens used to concentrate light.
- noun A lantern or lamp having such a lens.
- noun A piece of round hard candy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Nautical: An oval wooden block without a sheave, but with a groove around it for the band and a hole in the center through which a small stay or rope may be rove.
- noun A perforated ball on the jaw-rope of a gaff.
- noun A small obscure cloud, ruddy in the middle, supposed to portend a hurricane or storm.
- noun The hurricane or storm itself.
- noun In architecture, any circular opening for light or air; a bullock's-eye.
- noun In astronomy, Aldebaran, a star of the first magnitude in the eye of Taurus, or the Bull. See cut under
Taurus . - noun A round piece of thick glass, convex on one side, inserted into a deck, port, scuttle-hatch, or skylight-cover of a vessel for the purpose of admitting light.
- noun A small lantern with a convex lens placed in one side to concentrate the light.
- noun That part of a sheet of crown-glass which has been attached to the pontil.
- noun A planocon-vex lens in a microscope, which serves as an illuminator to concentrate rays of light upon an opaque micro-scopic object.
- noun A small and thick old-fashioned watch.
- noun In archery and gunnery The central or innermost division of a target, usually round and of a different color from the rest. See
target . - noun A shot that hits the bull's-eye; the best shot that can be made.
- noun A coarse sweet-meat; a colored or striped ball of candy.
- noun A local English name of the dunlin, Tringa alpina.
- noun In meteorology: A small cloud of ruddy aspect which off the coast of South Africa rapidly develops into a local storm.
- noun The center of a system of circular isobars, such as characterizes an extensive storm. The isobars suggest the appearance of a target with its bull's-eye.
- noun Hence— The severest part of a storm or the center of a hurricane.
- noun A fish of New South Wales, Priacanthus macracanthus.
- noun The labradorite variety of feldspar, with a dusky sheen. Also
œil-de-bœuf .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A small circular or oval wooden block without sheaves, having a groove around it and a hole through it, used for connecting rigging.
- noun A small round cloud, with a ruddy center, supposed by sailors to portend a storm.
- noun A small thick disk of glass inserted in a deck, roof, floor, ship's side, etc., to let in light.
- noun A circular or oval opening for air or light.
- noun A lantern, with a thick glass lens on one side for concentrating the light on any object; also, the lens itself.
- noun (Astron.) Aldebaran, a bright star in the eye of
Taurus or the Bull. - noun (Archery & Gun.) The center of a target.
- noun A thick knob or protuberance left on glass by the end of the pipe through which it was blown.
- noun colloq. A small and thick old-fashioned watch.
- noun something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative spelling of
bull's eye .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a lantern with a single opening and a sliding panel that can be closed to conceal the light
- noun in target shooting: a score made by hitting the center of the target
- noun the center of a target
- noun something that exactly succeeds in achieving its goal
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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How many will give a very serious second thought to whether life in public service is worth it; to whether a life in the very bull's-eye is worth the price Gabby Giffords is now paying and Christina Green has already paid?
Rebecca Sive: Mark Kelly at National Prayer Breakfast: Will Something Good Come of This? Rebecca Sive 2011
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Fox's Human Target benefited from being in Idol's wake, serving as the bull's-eye for 9.3 million people and increasing 24 percent to a season-high 2.6 demo rating from its Monday show, while a Modern Family rerun garnered 7.9 million.
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Rain, and quite a lot of it, drew a bull's-eye on the Washington region with the same ferocity as last winter's relentless blizzards.
D.C. region braces for deluge Ashley Halsey III 2010
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How many will give a very serious second thought to whether life in public service is worth it; to whether a life in the very bull's-eye is worth the price Gabby Giffords is now paying and Christina Green has already paid?
Rebecca Sive: Mark Kelly at National Prayer Breakfast: Will Something Good Come of This? Rebecca Sive 2011
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Communities inland were getting hit hardest, with eastern Pennsylvania serving as the bull's-eye for the storm.
Northeast Weather: Fall To Look Like Winter This Weekend 2011
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Rain, and quite a lot of it, drew a bull's-eye on the Washington region with the same ferocity as last winter's relentless blizzards.
D.C. region braces for deluge Ashley Halsey III 2010
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Whenever I read those stories, I think of George Foreman's contention that the rope-a-dope was never a strategy at all, that Muhammad Ali had fired an arrow into a barn and then walked over afterward and painted a bull's-eye around it.
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Rep. Bob Brady D-Pa. is planning to introduce a bill banning bull's-eye and crosshairs images.
Morning Bits Jennifer Rubin 2011
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Rain, and quite a lot of it, drew a bull's-eye on the Washington region with the same ferocity as last winter's relentless blizzards.
D.C. region braces for deluge Ashley Halsey III 2010
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So, too, is Shakespeare & Company's revival a wholly satisfying piece of work, a show full of bull's-eye moments that make you sit up straight in your seat and say, "I've been there—that's just how it is."
The Family and Its Discontents Terry Teachout 2011
reesetee commented on the word bull's-eye
In stamp collecting, a cancel that is centered directly on the stamp so that the stamp shows the location and date of mailing.
August 25, 2008