Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having sore eyes.
  • Having orbital caruncles, as if sores: as, the sore-eyed pigeon. See cut under sheathbill.

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

  • adjective having sore eyes; suffering from pinkeye or conjunctivitis

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Many a poor sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he honestly slumbered a fool's allowance.

    Walking 1969

  • "Ruth is always picking up the sore-eyed kittens."

    Ruth Fielding At College or The Missing Examination Papers Alice B. Emerson

  • But when it comes to sleeping in the same room with six sore-eyed kittens and in the same bed with a mangy street dog, I think something should be done about it.

    Rosemary Josephine Lawrence

  • "Of course, you'd pick up some sore-eyed kitten," complained Ann Hicks.

    Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures Or, Helping the Dormitory Fund Alice B. Emerson

  • Many a poor sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he honestly slumbered a fool's allowance.

    Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American Various

  • An attendant was tenderly bandaging the blinking lids of a sore-eyed duck: another was feeding a blind crow, who, it must be confessed, looked here very much like some fat member of the New York Ring cunningly availing himself of the more toothsome rations in the sick ward of the penitentiary.

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 097, January, 1876 Various

  • There were old men with long, white, patriarchal beards flowing over their dirty black gowns; there were younger men with peaked black caps and long black beards; and there were women who had pushed back their black shawls for air, and who held sore-eyed, whining babies listlessly on their knees.

    Trapped in 'Black Russia' Letters June-November 1915 Ruth Pierce

  • Many of the streets are a good deal less than six feet wide, the houses are completely windowless, and sore-eyed children cluster everywhere in unbelievable numbers, like clouds of flies.

    Marrakech 1939

  • An enormous flask of water hung from the roof in slings, but there was no food in sight and we were all of us ravenously hungry as well as sore-eyed from lack of sleep.

    Jimgrim Mundy, Talbot, 1879-1940 1931

  • Many a poor, sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he honestly slumbered a fool’s allowance.

    Walking 1914

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