Definition of "eye"

eye¹

/aɪ/

noun
plural eyes or (archaic or dialectal) eyen or (archaic) eyne
1. An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).
  Quotations
  To vvhat, my loue, ſhall I compare thine eyne? / Chriſtall is muddy.
  c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, [Act III, scene ii]
  Were it to search the furthest Northern clime / Where frosty Hyems with an ycie Mace / Strikes dead all living things, Ide find it out, / And borrowing fire from those fayre sunny eyne / Thaw Winters frost and warme that dead cold clime: […]
  1605, The Trial of Chivalry
  Now with a bitter smile, whose light did shine / Like a fiend’s hope upon his lips and eyne, / He said, and the persuasion of that sneer / Rallied his trembling comrades— […]
  1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, page 361
  It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye to a telescope.
  1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, chapter VI, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], page 188
  She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
  1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest‎, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925
  [H]is eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter XVII, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus
  The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages.
  2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist‎, archived from the original on 7 September 2013
2. The visual sense.
3. The iris of the eye, being of a specified colour.
4. Attention, notice.
  Quotations
  In the eyes of Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke the apotheosis of the Celebrity was complete. The people of Asquith were not only willing to attend the house-warming, but had been worked up to the pitch of eagerness. The Celebrity as a matter of course was master of ceremonies.
  1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
5. The ability to notice what others might miss.
  Quotations
  Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
6. A meaningful look or stare.
7. Short for private eye (“a privately hire detective or investigator”).
  Quotations
  Far more annoying were the letters from parents of missing daughters and the private detectives who had begun showing up at his door. Independently of each other, the Cigrand and Conner families had hired “eyes” to search for their missing daughters.
  2003, Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Random House, page 199
8. A hole at the blunt end of a needle through which thread is passed.
9. The oval hole of an axehead through which the axehandle is fitted.
  Quotations
  [H]e struck the Duffer a sharp blow on the back of the head with the eye of the axe, and left him stunned and senseless on the earth[.]
  1856 October 18, The People’s Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, N.S.W., page 6, column 1
10. A fitting consisting of a loop of metal or other material, suitable for receiving a hook or the passage of a cord or line.
11. (US) A burner on a kitchen stove.
12. The relatively calm and clear centre of a hurricane or other cyclonic storm.
13. A mark on an animal, such as a butterfly or peacock, resembling a human eye.
14. The dark spot on a black-eyed pea.
15. A reproductive bud in a potato.
16. (informal) The dark brown centre of a black-eyed Susan flower.
17. A loop forming part of anything, or a hole through anything, to receive a hook, pin, rope, shaft, etc.; for example, at the end of a tie bar in a bridge truss, through a crank, at the end of a rope, or through a millstone.
18. That which resembles the eye in relative beauty or importance.
  Quotations
  the very eye of that proverb
  1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene vii]
  Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
  1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […]
19. A shade of colour; a tinge.
  Quotations
  Red vvith an Eye of Blevv, makes a Purple; and by theſe ſimple Compoſitions again Compounded among themſelves, the Skilful Painter can produce vvhat kind of Colour he pleaſes, and a great many more than vve have yet Names for.
  1664, Robert Boyle, “Experiment XII”, in Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Henry Herringman […], published 1670, part III (Containing Promiscuous Experiments about Colours), page 220
20. One of the holes in certain kinds of cheese.
21. (architecture) The circle in the centre of a volute.
22. (typography) The enclosed counter (“negative space”) of the lower-case letter e.
23. (go) An empty point or group of points surrounded by one player's stones.
24. (usually in the plural) Opinion, view.
verb
third-person singular simple present eyes, present participle eyeing or eying, simple past and past participle eyed
1. (transitive) To carefully or appraisingly observe (someone or something).
  Quotations
  Each downcast monk in silence takes / His place a newmade grave around, / Each one his brother sadly eying.
  1859, Fraser’s Magazine, volume 60, page 671
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To appear; to look.
  Quotations
  My becomings kill me, when they do not eye well to you.
  c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
3. (transitive) To remove the reproductive buds from (potatoes).
  Quotations
  Once the potatoes have been rumbled they require 'eyeing' with a turning knife or hand peeler.
  1996, Food Preparation and Cooking, page 418
  My first assignment was eyeing old potatoes. The Siegler brothers would buy potatoes so old they looked like an octopus. My job was to make them look presentable and, of course, sellable.
  2012, Bob Vargovcik, Bayonne Boy, page 19
4. (transitive) To allow (fish eggs) to develop so that the black eye spots are visible.
  Quotations
  Eggs were collected from the Taylor Creek, Upper Truckee River, and Blackwood Creek traps and transported to this station to be eyed […]
  1927, Appendix to the Journals of the Senate and Assembly of the Forty-Seventh Session of the Legislature of the State of California

eye²

/aɪ/

noun
plural eyes
1. The name of the Latin-script letter I.
  Quotations
  It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."
  2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170
  IED [is spoken] as "eye-ee-dee" instead of "I SPELL India Echo Delta Romeo".
  2016 CCEB, Communications Instructions Radiotelephone Procedures: ACP125 (G), pages 3–5

eye³

/aɪ/

noun
plural eyes
1. A brood.

Definition of "eye"

eye1

noun

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verb

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eye2

noun

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eye3

noun

eye¹

eye²

eye³