Definitions

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

  • noun An organ of vision or of light sensitivity.
  • noun Either of a pair of hollow structures located in bony sockets of the skull, functioning together or independently, each having a lens capable of focusing incident light on an internal photosensitive retina from which nerve impulses are sent to the brain; the vertebrate organ of vision.
  • noun The external, visible portion of this organ together with its associated structures, especially the eyelids, eyelashes, and eyebrows.
  • noun The pigmented iris of this organ.
  • noun The faculty of seeing; vision.
  • noun The ability to make intellectual or aesthetic judgments.
  • noun A way of regarding something; a point of view.
  • noun Attention.
  • noun Watchful attention or supervision.
  • noun Something suggestive of the vertebrate organ of vision, especially.
  • noun An opening in a needle.
  • noun The aperture of a camera.
  • noun A loop, as of metal, rope, or thread.
  • noun A circular marking on a peacock's feather.
  • noun Chiefly Southern US The round flat cover over the hole on the top of a wood-burning stove.
  • noun A photosensitive device, such as a photoelectric cell.
  • noun A bud on a twig or tuber.
  • noun The often differently colored center of the corolla of some flowers.
  • noun Meteorology The circular area of relative calm at the center of a cyclone.
  • noun The center or focal point of attention or action.
  • noun Informal A detective, especially a private investigator.
  • noun A choice center cut of meat, as of beef.
  • transitive verb To look at.
  • transitive verb To watch closely.
  • transitive verb To supply with an eye.
  • idiom (all eyes) Fully attentive.
  • idiom (an eye for an eye) Punishment in which an offender suffers what the victim has suffered.
  • idiom (clap/lay) /set) To look at.
  • idiom (eye to eye) In agreement.
  • idiom (have eyes for) To be interested in.
  • idiom (have (one's) eye on) To look at, especially attentively or continuously.
  • idiom (have (one's) eye on) To have as one's objective.
  • idiom (in the eye of the wind) In a direction opposite that of the wind; close to the wind.
  • idiom (in the public eye) Frequently seen in public or in the media.
  • idiom (in the public eye) Widely publicized; well-known.
  • idiom (my eye) In no way; not at all. Used interjectionally.
  • idiom (with an eye to) With a view to.
  • idiom (with (one's) eyes closed) Unaware of the risks involved.
  • idiom (with (one's) eyes open) Aware of the risks involved.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fix the eye on; look at; view; observe; particularly, to observe or watch narrowly or with fixed attention.
  • To make an eye in: as, to eye a needle.
  • To be seen; appear; have an appearance.
  • noun A brood: as, an eye or a shoal of fish.
  • noun In some echinoids, a minute pigmented nodule, probably without visual functions, situated at the end of an ambulacrum.
  • noun In photography, the spectral range of wave-lengths to which a photographic plate or film is sensitive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English ēge, ēage; see okw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English ēaġe ("eye"), from Proto-Germanic *augô (“eye”) (compare Scots ee, West Frisian each, Dutch oog, German Auge, Swedish öga), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃okʷ-, *h₃ekʷ- (“eye; to see”) (compare Latin oculus, Lithuanian akìs, Old Church Slavonic око (oko), Albanian sy, Ancient Greek ὤψ (ōps, "eye, face"), Armenian ակն (akn), Avestan  (aši, "eyes"), Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi), Tocharian A ak). Related to ogle.

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  • well of water, Providence, watchfulness

    July 22, 2009

  • Hollywood slang for CBS.

    August 26, 2009